{"id":196291,"date":"2026-04-14T01:54:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T01:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/196291\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T01:54:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T01:54:25","slug":"nj-chick-fil-a-shooting-manhunt-continues-for-suspects-after-6-shot-1-killed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/196291\/","title":{"rendered":"NJ Chick-fil-A shooting: Manhunt continues for suspects after 6 shot, 1 killed"},"content":{"rendered":"

UNION, New Jersey (WABC) — The manhunt continues on Monday for the gunmen in a deadly shooting at a Chick-fil-A restaurant in New Jersey<\/a> over the weekend.<\/p>\n

The incident left one person dead and at least six others injured. The victim who died has been identified as Malek Shepherd, 23, of New York City.<\/p>\n

It happened around 9 p.m. Saturday at the Chick-fil-A on Route 22 in Union.<\/p>\n

While no arrests have been made, the shooting is believed to be a targeted incident stemming from a drug or gang dispute.<\/p>\n

Video appears to show people running away from the restaurant, but it is not yet clear how many gunmen were involved.<\/p>\n

\"Video<\/p>\n

Video shows people running away from the restaurant.<\/p>\n

Shepherd, who was a customer, is believed to be the target of the shooting and the other victims are believed to be bystanders and\/or employees of the Chick-fil-A.<\/p>\n

One of the injured victims is a high school student who was working there that night trying to earn money for prom and college.<\/p>\n

Her mother says one of her happy places has turned into a lifelong fight against trauma and she is now cringing at the thought of even stepping outside.<\/p>\n

Eyewitness News spoke to a father of one of the Chick-fil-A workers on Saturday night. He says that his son called him in a panic, saying that multiple suspects wearing masks entered the establishment. He also says several of his son’s co-workers were injured in the shooting.<\/p>\n

Witnesses say they heard at least seven shots piercing into the crowd.<\/p>\n

Jean Derilus, a DoorDash driver, said Monday that the masked suspects were behind the counter and firing shots into the dining area.<\/p>\n

Derilus said Saturday nights draw a lot of other delivery workers due to the high volume of orders. He said he was in the restaurant 15-20 minutes before the shooting happened.<\/p>\n

Longtime customers said they are shaken by the violence.<\/p>\n

“That’s what’s terrifying, being a father or a parent, you have to always be vigilant and keep your head on a swivel and make sure that you’re paying attention to your surroundings and try to avoid getting yourself into a situation and unfortunately coming to a Chick-fil-A at dinner time is apparently a situation you may have to avoid now a days,” customer Christopher Devido said.<\/p>\n

The other victims were treated for non-life threatening injuries.<\/p>\n

The Union County Prosecutor’s Office says it is an ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n

———-
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Copyright \u00a9 2026 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UNION, New Jersey (WABC) — The manhunt continues on Monday for the gunmen in a deadly shooting at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[78271,9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":{"0":"post-196291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-78271","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-city-news","13":"tag-ny"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}