AURORA | The man who was refused service at an Aurora Waffle House for refusing to comply with COVID-19 mask rules and then returned a day later to shoot a cook in the stomach has been sentenced to 13 years imprisonment.
Kelvin Watson, 30, entered the Waffle House restaurant at 12880 E. Mississippi Ave. without a mask at around midnight on May 14, 2020. He was told he needed to wear a mask for staff to serve him due to COVID-19 mandates. He left and returned with a mask but refused to wear it.
When he was told again to leave, according to a waitress, Watson pulled out a gun and threatened to shoot the restaurant’s cook. He ultimately left the restaurant, and the incident was reported to police that morning.
About a day later, police were dispatched to a shooting at the same Waffle House and discovered the cook who Watson had threatened had been shot in the stomach. The cook, who survived the shooting, identified Watson as the shooter, and the wait staff said Watson was a “regular” at the restaurant.
Watson pleaded guilty this month to attempted second-degree murder, a Class 3 felony, as well as a sentence enhancer for committing a violent crime with a weapon. He was sentenced by Arapahoe County District Court Judge Jacob Edson. Once released from prison, Watson will spend three years on mandatory parole.
“While restaurants and stores are public places, businesses have the right to refuse service or ask customers to leave their establishment,” 18th Judicial District Attorney John Kellner said in a news release. “The defendant drove back to the restaurant and shot an innocent employee for no reason other than doing his job.”
Kelvin Watson, the man convicted, will now be able to spend a long time with men who don’t wear masks.
13 years seems light.
justice served
It’s sure a good thing Waffle House has the public policy to ban guns and represents a gun free protected zone. And we see Kelvin Watson, was another close observer of these rules. It’s obvious Watson didn’t like his waffle breakfast very much and saw things different.
https://crimeresearch.org/2018/04/waffle-house-continues-company-policy-ban-permitted-concealed-handguns-civilians-restaurants/
I guess that your underlying world view is that ‘the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun’; and that more guns means more safety. Both premises disproven by research. Supermarkets, theaters, house of worship, schools, highways, and arenas are all ‘gun free zones’ as are most public places. Why should people live in fear of getting shot or killed by someone who should not have a gun?
As long as we have more guns than people and lax gun restrictions, we will continue to have this senseless epidemic of gun violence, currently costing us more than 40,000 deaths a year, twice that many maimings, billions in healthcare expenses, and years of grief and grieving for relatives and friends of victims.
Remember in 2024 and vote for those who will work to end the slaughter.