That's not supposed to happen here

Um, that's not supposed to happen in my part of suburban white-trash town.

Woman, man dead after shooting at Maple Grove McDonald's
A woman was
killed outside a McDonald's in Maple Grove by her boyfriend, who later killed
himself, police said.
By CHAO
XIONG, Star Tribune
Last update: April 20, 2009 - 6:00
AM

In a bloody end to a domestic dispute, a young woman's on-again,
off-again boyfriend shot her to death Sunday afternoon outside a Maple Grove
McDonald's restaurant, then committed suicide on a nearby freeway, police
said.

At least a dozen people, including children, were eating inside the
popular restaurant when the man accosted the woman as she walked toward the
entrance, shooting her at least twice with a shotgun.

Just before 2 p.m., Maple Grove police received several frantic 911
calls about a woman being shot in the parking lot of the McDonald's on Sycamore
Lane N. Witnesses saw her stumble at the curb and fall onto a sidewalk by the
restaurant as she was shot the first time, said Maple Grove police Capt. Tracy
Stille. The male suspect then approached the woman and shot her again at "very
close range," Stille said.

The man then fled in a white vehicle. "Witnesses in the restaurant were
yelling, 'Grab the license plate! Grab the license plate!' " he said.

It was Maple Grove's first homicide in eight years, police said.

The man and woman had arrived separately at the restaurant to break off
a year-old relationship, Stille said. The identities of the two, whom police
described as metro-area residents in their 20s, had not been released by late
Sunday.

A McDonald's employee and two police officers performed CPR on the
woman, but she died at the scene.

Armed with a vehicle description and a partial license plate number, a
Brooklyn Park police officer was waiting for the suspect, who was driving 20 to
30 miles over the 55 miles-per-hour speed limit, on Interstate 694, Stille
said.

About six minutes after the initial 911 calls, the officer pulled the
suspect over on 694 at the border of Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center. He
approached the parked vehicle and found the man dead inside from an apparent
self-inflicted gunshot wound, Stille said.
The officer did not see or hear
the shooting, but the car's roof bore a hole from a fired weapon, Stille said. A
shotgun was found inside.

The eastbound lanes of 694 were shut down for a time during the
incident, but traffic slowly returned to normal.

Authorities searched both shooting scenes into the early evening. At
least two cars sustained damage from shots in the McDonald's parking lot, where
the female victim lay covered for several hours after the shooting. It's unclear
how many shots were fired, but one car had a shattered window and a flat
tire.

A group of teenagers sitting in a booth just 5 feet away on the other
side of large windows witnessed the commotion, but it's unclear if they saw the
actual shooting, Stille said.
The victim's 9-year-old daughter and several
other family members arrived at the scene shortly after the shooting and were
being interviewed by police. Grieving family members and friends declined to
comment.

Officials said they did not expect to release the identities of the man
or woman Sunday.
Chao Xiong • 612-673-4931

Wow, click on that map and start on #1, go north and hop over Cedar Island lake before you hit the Hwy. 694/94 split and you got my place. I've gone to that McDonald's since my Azure and Gold Huffy with the missing crossbar from an attempt to fly off the hill ended my BMX aspirations at age nine took me up there for Donkey Kong at Spectrum and a 35 cent cone from McDs. It's not what you'd consider a "depressed" part of town, but the older part developed first before the suburban exploitation of Applebee's/TGIFriday/namearestaurantchainandorplacetobuyscrapbookingjunk moved in across the highway.

Sure the bowling alley (Spectrum's) across from the McD's went belly up six months ago after 20 years of good service and drink specials only taking two years of mis-management to shoot itself into bankruptcy, but this type of thing doesn't happen in our perfectly built "little" town.

Maybe recessionary rage is finally spilling over into the 9 to 5'ers holding that Grande Latte from Caribou.

Update: For those video inclined, check out KSTP's coverage here.