Dunkin’ employees say an innocent bystander was sitting inside the store drinking his coffee when a stray bullet came flying through the window behind him, just narrowly missing him.
Police in Chelsea, Massachusetts are searching for a suspect after gunfire broke out in a city parking lot. One of the bullets smashed through the glass window of a nearby Dunkin', narrowly missing a customer.
Chelsea Police Chief Brian Kyes said officers were called to the area of the McDonald's parking lot on the Revere Beach Parkway, near the area of Washington Avenue and Sagamore Avenue, for the initial reports of shots fired.
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When they arrived they found an abandoned black Volkwagen, still running, that had been damaged by bullets. Police believe the people in the Volkswagen exchanged gunfire with the occupants of another vehicle, believed to be a white ZipCar.
Workers at the Dunkin' that was hit showed the damage to the window. They said a bullet came through a window where a customer was sitting and working on his laptop, but he was not hit.
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“We were scared. Thank God he's alive," Amita Paul said.
Paul said she was not there when the shooting happened and learned of it when she was headed to work. She said all the workers are concerned but are glad things weren't worse.
"Right now it’s scary too everybody’s scared who works here," she told NBC10 Boston.
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"It's just bizarre. All we have now is people shooting at each other. It's like the wild wild west all over again," said Anthony Carbone, who adds that he comes to this Dunkin' every morning for a cup of coffee.
"I sit in the other corner, right in the middle, so I would've been close to it but this is my second cup today so I wasn't sitting down," he added.
Police say two men in the Volkswagen took off running. The white car also left the area on Sagamore Avenue.
Investigators are now looking for a known person of interest in the shooting, Kyes said. The Volkswagen was seized and will be searched for evidence.
Carbone says despite the close call at his go-to coffee shop, it won't keep him from sitting by the window ever again.
"No I'll be here tomorrow morning," he said. "It's just crazy times."
Fortunately, police say no one was injured Tuesday. Police believe the two groups involved in the shooting are known to each other.
