KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City, Kansas, police said a man was shot and killed inside a Pizza Hut near 43rd Street and Rainbow Boulevard during an apparent attempted robbery.
Officers were called to the shooting just after 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday night.
When they arrived, they located the man, identified as 25-year-old Laron Briggs of KCK, inside the Pizza Hut and pronounced him dead at the scene. Police said he was an employee of the restaurant.
"We had no idea when he went to work last night that he wasn’t going to come back home," said Rowena Epps Boykin, Briggs' grandmother.
Briggs has a big family; he is one of seven children. His death is a crushing loss for all of them.
"He loves his family. He always worked hard. He was just a good kid," Epps Boykin said.
Police haven't confirmed how many suspects were involved, though the family said they were told two suspects went into the restaurant with guns.
"He’s out here trying to make an honest living and it’s sad. Very sad," Epps Boykin said.
The family said Briggs wasn't even supposed to be working Tuesday night. He was covering for someone else. He worked full-time at a warehouse, and Pizza Hut was a part-time job.
"He just had started working here, so he seemed like a pretty cool young guy, so I don't know what's going on," former Pizza Hut employee Lavia Forbes said. "Didn't seem like he had any trouble or anything. Seemed cool. He was just quiet, respectable."
Forbes went to the restaurant on Wednesday. He said he just quit working there last week, but some of his family members are still employees.
He said Briggs hadn't even been working at the restaurant for a month.
"This isn’t a bad delivery area. You’re delivering to West Plaza, kind of middle class area, so this isn’t a bad delivery area where robberies and things like that go on," Forbes said.
Briggs' family can't wrap their minds around his death, either. They hope police find the suspect soon.
"Enough is enough. Enough. It’s too much," said Briggs's aunt, Evonne Hooker.
Police said the murder could have been an attempted armed robbery, but they are still unsure.
Other workers heard the commotion in the store and hid in the freezer.
Anyone with information is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477.
