‘I was shocked it was over a $6 pizza’: Man pulls gun on pizza place employees over wait time

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - A Knoxville man is in custody after threatening the workers of a Little Caesars with an AK-47 over the wait time of his pizza order, according to a police report.

Officers responded to the restaurant just after 9 p.m. Friday where they were told that the suspect, identified as Charles Doty Jr., 53, became upset when he was told that his pepperoni pizza would take ten minutes to make, WVLT reported.

Doty Jr. got upset and demanded a free bread stick order before going to wait for the pizza outside, according to the report from the Knoxville Police Department.

When Doty Jr. returned, he had the weapon in hand and was pointing it at employees, demanding they give him his pizza immediately, the report stated.

“He comes walking back in and hasn’t pointed at anybody yet. I was taking care of a female customer and she was just getting ready to leave, then he gets the gun. He pointed at me saying ‘Where is my damn pizza. I want my pizza,’” said Kimberleigh Murrell, a former employee who was working during the incident. “Honestly fear and utter disbelief like I was shocked it was over a $6 pizza.”

He reportedly stopped an employee who was trying to leave, asking the employee “where in the hell he thought he was going.”

A woman waiting in line ended up giving him her pizza in an attempt to get him to leave.

“We are not always hot and ready! Never listen to that,” Murrell said, referring to Little Caesars’ slogan. “We are not always hot and ready.”

Noah Beeler, a current employee, was also there when this incident occurred and attempted to approach Doty Jr., telling him that there was no need to be hostile.

“And right when I walk up there, I say, ‘What in God’s green earth is going through your head,’ he moves his hand off the trigger and onto the barrel to put it on safety and says ‘Don’t get aggravated.’ I was like ‘Man ... leave,” Beeler said.

Doty Jr. was charged with aggravated assault and especially aggravated kidnapping, the report said. He was taken into custody and is in jail.

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