Javonte Pratt
A 19-year-old has been charged with robbing an employee at the Highway 58 KFC at gunpoint.
Javonte Pratt, of 5011 Irvin Road, was charged with aggravated robbery and filing false reports.
In the incident on Saturday, the female employee said she was working the drive-thru window when a light-skinned black male ordered a #1 for $6.54 and pulled up to the drive-thru window.
She said the customer handed her a $20 bill for his order. When she opened the cash register and got his change, she turned around to give him his change and he had opened the drive-thru window and had a gun pointed at her. He reached for the cash register drawer, but was unable to grab any money before the employee closed the cash drawer.
After shutting the drawer, she ran to the back office and closed the door for her safety, while someone called the police.
A witness said he was walking out of the gas station on the corner of Jersey Pike and Highway 58 when he heard yelling from the KFC. He got into his vehicle and was about to pull away from the gas pump when he observed a black Ford Fusion speed around the corner from the drive-thru and crash into a pole in the parking lot.
He then saw the front seat passenger walk around the vehicle and open the driver's side door and help the driver out of the crashed vehicle. They both began to run east towards Jersey Pike.
The witness said he began to hear rapid shooting, so he took cover and called 9-1-1.
He described the passenger as a black male wearing a long-sleeved white shirt and dark colored pants, with medium length hair. He described the driver as 5'8"-5'10" tall, medium build, light-skinned, with black braided hair in a "mohawk" style braided together and down to his shoulders.
Police said about an hour later Javonte Pratt called in saying that his vehicle had been carjacked near the KFC. Police met with Pratt at his home and transported him back to the scene.
Police said Pratt had a bump on his forehead that he claimed he got when he was hit on the head when his vehicle was taken.
An investigator observed video footage that showed a black vehicle come to the drive-thru, the driver give the clerk money for the food, then open the drive-thru window and attempt to grab money out of the cash register, but was not able to get any.
A family member of Pratt said that he had let Pratt take the vehicle with his permission.
Police said when the investigator told Pratt about some facts of the case and that he was not carjacked, Pratt said, "But I didn't rob anyone," even though the investigator had never mentioned anything to Pratt about the KFC being robbed.