Atlanta Caterer Says Fired Employee Responded by Pulling A Gun and Robbing Him

Thank goodness no one was hurt....

The owner of a beloved catering company in Atlanta said a former employee pulled a gun and robbed him the day after being terminated, Fox 5 Atlanta reports.

Chef Tim Morgan, owner of Tim Morgan Catering, said he fired Harrita Benton in early December 2024 after she failed to attend an event where she was scheduled to work. Morgan said she would need to turn in her uniform and keys the next day.

However, Benton had other ideas.

“She had a key to the building. She came into the building, and she was dressed for the part. She had on a hoodie, sweatpants and tennis shoes, and a pistol in her waist,” Morgan said. “Her intention was to kill me.”

Morgan recalled feeling like his life flashed before his eyes until another employee stepped in. Benton then stole his phone and left. She didn’t get far as she was arrested on the same night and booked into the Fulton County Jail on simple battery and theft by taking charges.

While no one was hurt, Morgan says the ordeal shook him and his employees. One employee even called out out of fear.

“I have not slept in the last 48 hours,” he said.

In the meantime, Morgan has hired extra security as a precaution. The entrepreneur’s ordeal occurred just days after the news of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO Brian Thompson being killed on the streets of New York City. As law enforcement has yet to put the person seen on camera committing the crime behind bars, one of NYPD’s chief of detectives, Joe Kenny, believes the assassin could have been a disgruntled employee, similar to Benton. “Our thought on it is obviously it could possibly be a disgruntled employee or disgruntled client,” Kenny said, according to the New York Post.

Several crimes have occurred at the end of 2024 by alleged disgruntled employees. In November 2024, a former employee of the Navy Pier in Chicago killed two workers before fleeing the scene.

The unidentified worker was fired from his job at the tourist attraction, which features shops, restaurants, and its iconic Ferris wheel along Lake Michigan, on Oct. 14. Stephanie Knowles, who works at a souvenir shop, said she was told to pack up after her manager received a call telling employees they had to “start closing everything down.”

Knowles and other staff members turned off all the lights and decided to hide in a storage room in the back of the shop. The terrified worker said she immediately started to think about school shootings. “I was a little nervous, you know, when you think about the high school shootings,” Knowles said.

“I’ve never had to live through that, so this was the closest thing that I’ve had to that experience.”