KFC staff receiving counselling after restaurant murder

Staff at KFC's Gasparillo branch are been offered counselling after a shooting at the restaurant on February 16 left one man dead.

Luka Lorenzo Goring, 31, of Gopaul Lands, Marabella was shot dead on Friday night during a physical altercation with another man inside the restaurant.

CCTV footage showed Goring and the other man arguing while a security guard tried to intervene.

The guard was pushed away.

During the scuffle, Goring appeared to stab the man several times before the suspect took out a gun from under his jacket and fired several shots at Goring.

Prestige Holdings CEO Simon Hardy told Newsday he believes the incident is a “one-off” but lamented the state of the country.

“It is somewhat of a sad reflection of where our society has gone to and the way we tend to resolve conflicts in a violent way and not seek other ways to resolve it.”

Asked if the incident could prompt a change in security arrangements, Hardy chose not to comment, as he cited concern about publicising “particular insights to our security arrangements.

“There was security present then and at the end of the day, he tried to de-escalate it. But when you're talking about someone pulling a gun out, that is something in a whole different league terms of how we're dealing with it.”

Hardy offered condolences to Goring’s family and described the shooting as “a senseless tragedy that should never have happened.”

He said the welfare of staff at the branch has been taken into consideration, and the affected employees given time to process the situation.

“In terms of our staff counselling, we closed the store immediately and obviously the authorities were contacted and the police visited and so on. We are providing counselling services to our staff to make sure that they're all okay.

“The store reopened Saturday, but then we closed it again, because obviously the evening shift staff are the ones affected.”

He said the store returned to its regular opening hours on Sunday.

Expressing his dismay at the level of violence in the country, Hardy said Prestige Holdings is open to considering partnering with a non-governmental organisation to address this issue.

“It's something that we might consider and ask ‘What part can we play to help the nation?’ but there are no specific plans as yet.”

Police are still searching for the suspect, who has been described as “armed and dangerous.”

Anyone with information on the suspect is urged to call Crime Stoppers at 800-TIPS or the police at 999, 555, or the nearest police station.