A first date went terribly wrong when a man was gunned down outside a bar after he jokingly said he voted for President-elect Donald Trump.
Shaunita Walker told WSB-TV that she and Mitchell Mormon Jr. were outside Church Bar on Edgewood Avenue in Atlanta at about 3 a.m. Saturday when her new date got into an argument with another man who pulled a gun.
Walker, 25, said the alleged shooter uttered something disrespectful to her as she went back into the bar, angering Mormon, 32, who confronted the man and began arguing with him. Walker said Mormon jokingly told the man he voted for Trump.
The argument continued and the alleged shooter — identified by Walker as a Hispanic man wearing a white coat — went around a corner, came back with a gun and opened fire.
Police said officers responded to 466 Edgewood Ave. and found both Walker and Mormon shot. Both were taken to Grady Hospital, where Mormon later died. Walker, who was shot in the arm, is recovering out of state, WSB-TV reports.
Investigators released surveillance video depicting several people outside the bar, including two people they hope to identify in connection with the shooting: a man in a white jacket who appears to be Hispanic and a white male in a hooded sweatshirt carrying a backpack. Police are also asking the public for any video of the incident that may have been captured by patrons.
Walker told the station she doesn’t think Mormon’s Trump comment played a role in the shooting, claiming that the gunman was determined to cause trouble from the outset. Still, she is pleading for help to get the suspect off the street.
“Please, if anybody know anything, please, this was so senseless,” she told WSB-TV. “This was so horrible.”
After hearing the first shot and then feeling it enter her arm, Walker said, she began to scream.
“And then I heard two more shots and I saw Mitchell on the ground,” she said. “And I’m just screaming, ‘Somebody please help us. Somebody please help him.’”
Dortensia Woods, the mother of two of Mormon’s three children, said he was a “wonderful” father who just started a job with the federal government earlier this month.
“He had finally gotten a great job that was able to support his children,” Woods told The Post. “He was really happy about it. This was the first job where he didn’t have to work weekends, or on holidays, and with benefits. He was really happy.”
Woods said she’s now unsure how she will support the couple’s two children, Bayleigh, 4, and Carter, who was born in August. Mormon also had a 9-year-old son, Myles, with another woman, Woods said.
“I really don’t know what to do because Mitchell was taking care of everything,” she said. “So what am I going to do financially and explain to my daughter that she’ll never see her daddy again?”
Woods said she was expecting to see Mormon at some point late Saturday, several months after they started living apart following the birth of their son.
Asked whether she thought Mormon would joke about voting for Trump, Woods said he was the “life of the party” but also a “very protective person” who would do anything in his power to protect those around him.
“I think that plays into it,” Woods said of Mormon being overly protective. “They were just having a good time and things just escalated.”
Woods said Mormon did vote, but declined to elaborate.
Mormon’s funeral will be held on Saturday. Woods said her daughter is already asking questions.
“She said, ‘I want to see my daddy,’” Woods said. “I said, ‘Well, he’s not here, he’s in heaven.’ She doesn’t understand. But his kids were his world, that was his main focus in life.”
Anyone with information regarding the shooting is asked to call the Atlanta Police Homicide Unit at (404) 546-4235.