{"id":251965,"date":"2026-04-30T02:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T02:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/251965\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T02:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T02:51:08","slug":"fl-taco-bell-employee-accused-of-shooting-at-customers-over-drink-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/251965\/","title":{"rendered":"FL Taco Bell Employee Accused of Shooting at Customers Over Drink Dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"

WEST PALM BEACH, FL \u2014 A 20-year-old Taco Bell employee in South Florida was arrested Monday after allegedly firing a gun at three customers during an argument over a drink, according to multiple reports.<\/p>\n

The incident began when three women entered the restaurant and asked for a water cup at the counter. One of them then filled the cup at the soda fountain, sparking a dispute with the employee, D\u2019Mari Jy\u2019Quan Patterson, according to court records cited by People<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Video recorded by a witness shows Patterson arguing with one of the women. The sound of a firearm being racked can also be heard in the footage, CBS 12 reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Patterson then opened fire, according to reports. One woman was struck and fell inside the dining area, another was grazed by a bullet, and a third ran from the restaurant.<\/p>\n

The women later drove themselves to JFK North Medical Center, where two were treated for minor injuries and released, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported<\/a>. The third was uninjured. <\/p>\n

Afterward, Patterson called 911 and said a customer had come behind the counter, according to reports. He admitted to firing the gun but told investigators he believed the women were armed and that he acted in self-defense.<\/p>\n

However, investigators said surveillance video and witness statements do not back up that claim, reports said.<\/p>\n

Patterson faces three counts of aggravated assault.<\/p>\n

See Also: <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WEST PALM BEACH, FL \u2014 A 20-year-old Taco Bell employee in South Florida was arrested Monday after allegedly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-251965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}