LYNCHBURG, Va. – Court documents obtained by WSLS 10 News reveal new details that led up to the Lynchburg Waffle House shooting over the weekend that left two hurt.
As we’ve previously reported, at around 3 a.m. Sunday morning, officers responded to the Waffle House, located at 2137 Wards Road in reference to a large fight inside the restaurant.
Once officers were en route to the scene, they learned that shots had been fired at the location. When police arrived, they found two people with gunshot wounds.
According to court documents, detectives spoke with witnesses who said a man was sitting in a chair waiting for his food order when a large group of men entered the restaurant. Witnesses said the group of men began speaking with the man and surrounded him before a fight broke out among the group.
A short time later, shots were fired from outside the restaurant, and bullets fired through the Waffle House, striking two people.
LPD reviewed security footage from the restaurant which confirmed that a fight had broken out inside the restaurant. The footage revealed that a large group of men left the restaurant, leaving the man, who was sitting down, behind. One of the men in the group paced outside the window near the front door.
Detectives said the footage showed that moments later, the window in front of the man shattered and the second victim grabbed her face and fell to the ground.
Police said from the footage, you can see the suspect running backward from the shattering window with his arm extended and a gun with an extended magazine in his hand.
The man then turned and ran to the back of the parking lot where he entered the driver’s seat of a dark-colored Nissan. Detectives backtracked the man’s movements to get a better description of the suspect. A confidential source told LPD that the man’s name was Omari.
Detectives began working the lead and found a man with the name Omarian Fitch who matched physical descriptors, and a search of Fitch revealed that he was involved in a traffic stop about a month prior. The officer who conducted the traffic stop reviewed the security footage, and agreed that the suspect appeared to be Omarian Fitch.
Detectives said that Fitch was wearing the same distinct black zip-up hoodies in body cam footage from the traffic stop as he was in the security footage of the shooting.
Detectives also found that Fitch has a 2007 black Nissan registered in his name.
Sunday evening at around 5 p.m., police saw Fitch get into his car, and after trying to stop the car, they were led on a pursuit.
The car later crashed at the intersection of Old Mill Road and McConville Road. The suspect then ran away from officers before being arrested.
Fitch was charged with the following:
- Aggravated malicious wounding
- Malicious wounding
- Reckless handling of a firearm
- Shooting into an occupied building
- Property damage
- Use of firearm during the commission of a felony
- Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon
- Discharge a firearm within the city limit
Further details about the second suspect, Shantia Turpin, were not revealed. Turpin was arrested and charged with accessory after the fact, eluding police, and obstruction of justice.
A GoFundMe page has been set up in support of Rosalind, the security guard who was shot during the incident.
If you’d like to donate, you can do so here.