COLUMBUS, Ohio — An employee at an east Columbus Papa John's said she was traumatized after witnessing an attempted robbery at the store Monday night.
Jereisha McMahan said she started working at the store in January and had heard of multiple robberies in the shopping complex but had never experienced anything like this.
“I’m traumatized honestly, yeah, I won’t wish this on anyone,” she said.
McMahan was one of the employees working at the E. Main Street location when a man approached the team with a gun.
“I could see the gun through his hoodie and my boss immediately saw that and the guy looks like he’s about to head past the counter,” McMahan said.
According to police, a man fully dressed in black with a black mask approached the counter. McMahan says her boss also immediately saw the gun and stepped in.
“My boss immediately stopped him and started protecting us and started fighting him,” McMahan said.
According to police reports, the manager was shot twice in the chest.
This isn’t the first time this Papa John’s location has been hit. According to police records, there was another attempted robbery in December 2021.
McMahan said it’s typically an all-female crew that closes the shop at night and she’s thankful that her boss just happened to be working that night.
“I’m very, very grateful for him, I’m so grateful for him because I don’t know what would have happened,” she said. “It’s usually all women who closes at night, and last night we luckily had a male to close with us last night.”
Police are still searching for the suspect, who is described as being between 20 to 30 years old and around five feet, four or five inches in height. Police said the suspect was wearing all black at the time of the shooting, including a black hoodie, mask, pants and shoes.
Police said the manager was taken to Grant Medical Center, where his condition is described as stable.
Anyone with information is asked to call 614-645-4665 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-8477.