‘You’re next’

At least one staff member at the Cipriani Boulevard Branch of McDonald’s has been threatened after the murder of store manager Ashmeed Mohammed two weeks ago. A report has been made to police.

According to sources, the worker has been the recipient of several threatening phone calls just days after Mohammed’s murder.

The restaurant re-opened on Saturday after a week long closure.

The staff member who spoke to Newsday under condition of anonymity said he received several threatening phone calls from men claiming to be Mohammed’s killers and on one occasion he was simply told, “You’re next”.

Other sources revealed that staff are hesitant to return to work, even after repeated reassurances from McDonald’s management that proper steps would be taken to strengthen security on the compound.

“We’ve had a few meeting with them (management) over the past week and they said they would be improving security at the branch but we haven’t seen it as yet.

We made the recommendation to have an armed guard at the branch, but they said that would be costly to have and also said it would be damaging to McDonald’s reputation as a family restaurant.

“For the time being it’s just like how it was before Ashmeed died and it seems that no one is taking our safety seriously.

Even worse some are trying to make it seem that the only reason Ashmeed died was because he broke protocol and opened the door to let the assailants in. At the end of our shifts we have to pass out the back of the restaurant.

Anyone could be waiting there.”

The employee told Newsday that he and other workers were expected to have another meeting with management at the branch today and said some staff as young as 18 remain shaken after Mohammed’s murder. He added that adequate security have been cause for concern for years at the Cipriani Boulevard Branch and was hoping Mohammed’s death would have been the catalyst to bring about more robust security.

On May 20 Ashmeed Mohammed was shot and killed by two masked gunmen who stormed the restaurant as employees were closing up for the evening. The men escaped in a Nissan Tiida parked outside the restaurant.