Hold onto your bonnets, dear readers, as a seemingly ordinary afternoon at a Georgia franchise of the fast-food powerhouse, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), was doused in hot sauce and turned into a mega-scandal that is reverberating across the fast-food industry. Life in the sleepy hamlet of Sandy Springs, Georgia spiraled into a spine-tingling true crime tableau right out of a Hollywood blockbuster when a KFC employee, previously believed to be just an average citizen, was allegedly involved in a heart-stopping, split-second stand-off!
The incident tossed the mundane Monday into the fast lane. It was the frenzied lunch rush, the time when succulent fried chicken is eagerly snatched up by voracious, fast-food aficionados. Shockingly, an off-duty KFC worker at this very juncture made a dramatic entry. An agenda that was purportedly far removed from cooking up the establishment’s iconic ‘Finger-Lickin’ Good’ meals seemed to be in play. This person still doomed to be a part of the fast-food rat race was ironically not there to cater to the crowd’s hunger but instead was alleged to have heated an argument to boiling point.
The KFC employee, 28-year-old Antonio Demetrice Rhynes from Atlanta was, it seems, involved in an escalating verbal altercation with 43-year-old injured woman, Linda Christina Davis right in the middle of the parking area, an open-air theatre for an audience of horrified by-passers. Merely stopping by to grab a bucket of fried chicken for her loved ones, Davis was certainly not prepared to be served this high-drama side dish. Rhynes, who was not working his shift, nonetheless chose the very platform of his income to allegedly gun down Davis.
Witnesses, their lunchtime narratives forever disrupted, were privy to this altercation that eventually led to the extreme decision by Rhynes to allegedly shoot Davis in the left shoulder. The yelps of pain and shock spliced the air, jolting everyone present out of their fried chicken trance. It was definitely not in the KFC menu!
Law enforcement, the unsung heroes always prepared for any extra seasoning, made a prompt entry, attempting to douse this fiery crime scene. The victim allegedly known to Rhynes, Mrs. Davis, was immediately taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, where her condition was reported as stable.
Just when you thought you had heard the last bone-rattling piece, in sweeps the dramatic arrest. The accused, Rhynes was taken into police custody from his Atlanta home on last Friday, November 27. The charges? Aggravated assault. The fast-food world was left in a tornado of astonishment, the KFC sign hardly a beacon of normalcy anymore.
One can only hope that fried chicken will once again be just fast food, and not an overture to violent confrontations. Will KFC, Sandy Springs, ever serve a peaceful bucket of chicken again? Only time can tell in this town that has had its share of extra crispy events!