CHARLOTTE — Family members of Jkarri Anderson, 19, said their loved one was trying to de-escalate a situation Friday before he was shot and killed outside the Wendy’s where he was working in north Charlotte.
Close family friend Ellen Clay spoke Tuesday night on behalf of his loved ones.
“They called him a hero because they felt like he protected them,” Clay said.
There have been videos circulating on social media taken inside Wendy’s the day it happened.
“It’s important that everyone knows the other side to what happened,” Clay said.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department charged Christopher Franks, 21, who was also working at the restaurant that day.
Anderson’s aunt told Channel 9 that the struggle depicted in the video started when Franks got upset because he was told to clock out.
At some point, the people in the video said Franks started reaching for what other workers thought was a gun.
They released Franks once they thought he had calmed down.
However, family members said Franks started waving the gun around before the workers ran away. Anderson was shot trying to escape.
“Jkarri, along with another relative, stepped up for the manager who is their aunt, when the other young man got belligerent,” Clay said.
The family said Anderson was a comedian who wanted to be a social media influencer.
“He was fun-loving,” Clay said. “He was present.”
The family calls his death senseless but says that’s not what they want to focus on.
“I pray that we allow God and this justice system to work on his behalf because all he was trying to do is save a life,” Clay said.
VIDEO: Victim, suspect identified in fatal Wendy’s shooting in north Charlotte
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