Source: WKRG Channel 5 News (CBS)

Two men are dead and another is in the hospital after a shooting at the drive-through at a McDonald's restaurant on St. Stephens Road in Toulminville Wednesday afternoon. Just after 4:30, three men in a Chevrolet SUV were ordering food in the drive-through when a man with a white t-shirt pulled over his head to conceal his identity opened fire.

"A young man came behind them and got to the back quarter-panel of the vehicle and started shooting. And as he shot, he was shooting and he was hitting people. He was hitting people inside the vehicle," said Interim Mobile Police Chief Lester Hargrove. "I don't know if he ran out of bullets or not, but I do know that he retreated back to a vehicle, the same vehicle that he had gotten out of, back in this direction here. The young men at that time, possibly, we're thinking possibly returned fire, because there is a bullet over behind the day care center, right behind you as we speak."

Chief Hargrove says it's a wonder that more people weren't caught in the crossfire, because there were people inside the restaurant, and children at a day care center just across the street on Clinton Ave. "Definitely so, because as we said before, there is a day care center, as we speak, and it was full of kids, because the parents don't pick the kids up until 5:00, and this happened at 4:30," Hargrove said. "Luckily, kids weren't coming out, getting into their parents cars when the gunshots were going on. As far as I'm concerned, the shooter has absolutely no regard for human life."

Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson, Jr. says based on what they know now, he believes the shooter had a grudge with the victims. "That there is a score to settle, that there's some sort of ongoing fight in the community, and when the shooter drives up, he recognizes three in the car, and then takes advantage of the opportunity."

The driver of the SUV drove himself and the other victims to USA Medical Center for treatment. Hargrove said the driver had been shot in the abdomen. The other two men died. The interim chief says investigators have some good leads. "Of course, there's a camera right up there, too that we're going to secure films from the McDonald's camera that they have," Hargrove said. "And, of course, he was about 5' 9", from what I'm hearing, from one of the witnesses, and of course there was someone else driving the car, when he jumped in, they sped off also."

Police are looking for a car with bullet holes in it, but they didn't want to release the make and model just yet. If you have any information that can help them, please call Mobile Police.

Added: April 6, 2006