CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – A gunman burst into an upscale downtown restaurant, fatally shooting the executive chef and taking another person hostage, prompting an hours-long standoff with police on Aug. 24, 2017.
It happened at Virginia’s on King during lunchtime.
Police identified the gunman as Thomas Burns, a former dishwasher who had been fired from the restaurant. Burns reportedly announced, “There’s a new boss in town” as he entered the restaurant with a gun, but he ordered patrons out before the hostage standoff began.
Police ultimately shot him, but not before he killed Chef Anthony Shane Whiddon of Goose Creek.
Burns would die from complications of that police shooting about four months later…