'It was brutal,' former Waffle House manager recalls after shooting

Lina PortmanMay 30, 2024

0 1 minute read

LYNCHBURG, Va. (WDBJ) – It's been a little over a month since the shooting at the Waffle House in Lynchburg.

Today, the former director of the restaurant speaks about what he and his team experienced following the violence.

“I hold on. This has not been easy. That's for sure. It’s definitely been a tough, tough month,” said former manager Tim Wright.

After working at Waffle Housing in Lynchburg for 9 years, Wright shared what he and the staff experienced that night.

“They called me all around, I think, briefly true, after three hours. I was asleep. They called screaming, crying, without really understanding what was happening. Wright explained. “They told me someone started shooting. Two people were hit, one shot in the leg, the other one, they didn't know where she was hit, they said briefly to the face, and they didn't even know at that point if she was going to get out. alive.”

When the sun rose that Tuesday morning, Wright and his team were asked to start cleaning the building.

“We all felt like it wasn’t right. You know, we probably should have hired someone to do it,” Wright said. “It was a disaster, it was messy, it was brutal. You know, at one point I had to come out, it was just so hard, you know, I had to take it and breathe and go back and kind of readjust.

Wright said he felt like the division lacked empathy when it came to staff care.

And just hours after the shooting, the restaurant reopened.

“We had to open the store at noon. You know, that's not a long time for anyone to collect their thoughts and realize what happened or probably even not clean it properly,” Wright said .

As the weeks pass, staff say they are still traumatized by the shooting.

“Some told me they didn’t sleep the same. If a chair moves too hard in the restaurant because we have aluminum chairs, they can be very noisy. And they told me they were jumping. Wright said.

He said the community's support in the face of violence helped them begin to heal.