FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — Police have arrested a man who is accused of robbing a McDonald's and locking employees into a freezer at gunpoint early Saturday morning.
Kaleem Tariq-Madyun, 35 of Lawrenceville, is charged with one count of armed robbery and seven counts of aggravated assault.
Channel 2's Michael Seiden was in Cumming, where he talked to a witness.
A waitress at a nearby Waffle House said she was working the graveyard shift when a group of six women ran into the restaurant shivering and hysterical.
Andrea Bramblett is a single mother who works two jobs to support her 10-year-old daughter.
She was working her second shift at the Waffle House when the terrified women ran in.
"Around 5 this morning, we all looked up and we saw about six women crying and screaming, coming in to the door saying that they had just been robbed," Bramblett said.
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The women were working the overnight shift at the McDonald's on Keith Bridge Road when investigators said an armed suspect stormed into the fast food restaurant and started demanding cash.
The man put the women into a freezer, but they somehow managed to escape. The manager was held at gunpoint and the man made him open the safe, police said.
The victims ran across the street to the Waffle House where two off-duty Forsyth deputies had just sat down to eat. The deputies rushed over to the McDonald's but the robber had already gotten away.
Bramblett said she's concerned the man may target the Waffle House. She said now, her daughter is afraid for her to go to work.
"The first thing she said was 'Do you have to work tonight at Waffle House? Because if you have to, I'm not going to let you, Mom!'," Bramblett said. "It actually brought tears to my eyes knowing she would be that scared."
Forsyth County Sheriff's Office secured an arrest warrant for Tariq-Madyun Saturday night and took him into custody with the help of Gwinnett County Police Department.
He remains in the Forsyth County Jail pending a court hearing.
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