Disgruntled Customer Kills Two Bartenders in Washington: Police

Two Washington state bartenders were fatally shot by a disgruntled customer, according to police.

Police in Federal Way, south of Seattle, were alerted to reports of a shooting at the Stars Bar & Grill at 31216 Pacific Highway S. at about 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, May 21.

According to the Federal Way Mirror, Federal Way police Commander Kurt Schwan said two women who worked at the bar, aged 36 and 38, as well as a 25-year-old customer all suffered gunshot wounds.

First aid was given to the victims but the women died at the scene and the customer was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Police said the suspect is reported to be another customer and was described as a man in his late 20s or early 30s.

He fled the scene following the shooting before police arrived and no report confirming his arrest has been released by police as of Tuesday, May 23.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 392 U.S. workers were workplace homicide victims in 2020.

"Thirty percent of workplace homicide victims were performing retail-related tasks such as tending a retail establishment or waiting on customers," it said.

Seattle TV station Kiro7 reported the bartenders and customers were shot in the parking lot after they left the bar and that they were involved in an earlier dispute with the suspect.

Schwan told the Federal Way Mirror that detectives are working to establish a timeline of events in order to determine if the dispute and shooting happened at the same time or if the suspect waited for the employees and customer to leave.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, a database that collects information about shootings from across the country, there have been 17 victims of gun violence since May 1 this year in Washington state.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there were 346 homicides in Washington state in 2021 and the state had a homicide death rate of 4.5 per every 100,000 people.

Anyone with information about the shooting has been asked to contact the Federal Way Police Department at 253-835-2121.

Newsweek has contacted Federal Way police for comment via its Facebook page.

There have been numerous incidents covered by Newsweek where employees have been killed following an argument with a customer.

A Subway worker was shot dead in front of her son in Atlanta in 2022 after she got into an argument with a customer "about too much mayonnaise on his sandwich," according to the restaurant owner.

Willie Glenn told local reporters: "Believe it or not, it was about too much mayonnaise on his sandwich. He decided to escalate the situation and from there, that's when all hell broke loose."