ATLANTA — Investigators have released photos and surveillance video in hopes of identifying the gunmen who killed a restaurant manager during a robbery this weekend.
According to police, three men entered Barcelona Wine Bar on Howell Mill Road in the West Midtown neighborhood as it was closing around 1:45 a.m. Sunday, and tied up the employees with electrical tape.
The men then forced the manager, 29-year-old Chelsea Beller, upstairs to open up the safe. That's when they shot her. Beller later died at Grady Memorial Hospital.
"I think it's important for us all to acknowledge that this isn't Atlanta. This isn't the Wild Wild West," Beller's friend Tyler Walters said.
@Atlanta_Police just released this dramatic surveillance from inside Barcelona wine bar of Sunday’s deadly robbery. https://t.co/YHueSecqL7
— Aaron Diamant (@AaronDiamantWSB) November 20, 2017
Police need your help. $7k reward for info. @wsbtv pic.twitter.com/QJG5xHIZMv
As Channel 2's Carl Willis went through the new video, he saw Atlanta police back at the scene looking for evidence in the shooting.
Beller's friends say the 29-year-old considered co-workers and restaurant regulars her family.
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"She was the salt of the earth. She was the type of person that had a genuine sense of caring," Walters said. “She loved coming to work. She loved what she did. It was just a place that she felt happy and she enjoyed what she did."
Investigators are hoping that even though the suspects' faces are masked, that someone might have an idea who they are, and bring a little peace to those grieving over Beller’s loss.
“Money is money, but killing young ladies who are in the prime of their lives, that's not who Atlanta is," Walter told Willis.
A reward of up to $7,000 is being offered for information leading to an arrest and indictment.
The Atlanta Police Department released a statement about the incident, saying:
“No crime against our citizens, anywhere in the city, is acceptable. But the robbery and murder of an innocent restaurant manager doing her job is a terrible crime that has shocked even the most jaded among us here at APD," the department said in a statement Monday. "We have made fighting violent crime our priority, and this incident underscores that our work is never done. Our investigators are working diligently to find those responsible for this crime. We will continue to focus our efforts on identifying and apprehending violent repeat offenders who prey on innocent people. These crimes are unacceptable, and we will not rest in our pursuit of shutting down these violent criminals.”
Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to contact police through Crime Stoppers Atlanta. Their phone number is 404-577-8477 and you can remain anonymous.
Cox Media Group
