FOREST PARK, Ga. — A pastor says his attempt to buy food to feed the homeless ended with a restaurant worker pulling a gun on him before assaulting him.
Jesse Hardy says his life was threatened while he was just trying to do God’s work.
“A 69-year-old pastor just come there to feed the homeless,” the pastor of Kingdom Transformation Ministries told Channel 2′s Tom Jones.
Hardy says he couldn’t believe it when an employee at the Church’s Chicken on Jonesboro Road in Forest Park did the unthinkable.
“He went behind the counter and he came out with a Tech 9 machine gun and he pointed the gun at me,” he said.
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The pastor says his wife was in the car and saw the worker point the gun.
“She’s beating on the glass of the window. ‘Don’t shoot my husband. Don’t shoot my husband,’” he said.
Hardy says he buys dozens of boxes of chicken from the restaurant to feed the homeless every Tuesday.
He says there was an angry worker cursing in the store when he walked in August 16.
Hardy says he told a manager that customers were leaving because of his antics. That’s when he says the 40-year-old worker pointed the gun at him.
“So he came over to the counter and put his finger in my face,” Hardy said.
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Hardy says he left the store, and so did the employee. Hardy says they fought in the parking lot. The pastor says he then got in his car to get away.
“And he sucker punched me right here. Right in the mouth,” he showed. “He tore my jersey off and just beating my head and my arm against this thing here,” he said, pointing to a part of the door.
Hardy says he suffered injuries to his mouth, his neck and he says he’s experiencing migraines from the attack.
Forest Park police told Jones the incident is under investigation and no arrests have been made.
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Hardy says Church’s hasn’t returned his calls. He says there is no way the restaurant should have hired a worker with anger issues who brings a high-powered gun to work.
“It’s absurd. It’s absurd. Things like this shouldn’t happen,” he said.
Channel 2 Action News reached out to Church’s Chicken to see if the worker is still employed and if there’s any video of what happened. We are still waiting to hear back from the restaurant’s corporate office.
Meanwhile, the pastor says his church members want to boycott Church’s Chicken until the chain responds to this incident.
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