Wendy's massacre
Five killed in a planned robbery at a Queens Wendy's.
The Wendy's massacre was a mass murder that occurred on May 24, 2000, at a Wendy's fast-food restaurant in Flushing, Queens, New York City. Five people were fatally shot and two others were wounded by two perpetrators who had planned to rob the safe. It remains one of the deadliest mass shootings in New York City history, alongside the 2025 Midtown Manhattan shooting.
Quick Facts
- Location
- Flushing, New York, U.S.
- Target
- Wendy's outlet
- Date
- 24 May 2000
- Time
- 11:00 p.m.
- Fatalities
- 5
- Injuries
- 2
- Weapon
- Bryco-Jennings Model J38.380 ACP semi-automatic pistol
Facts from the source article.
Robbery and killing of employees
The killings were carried out by 36-year-old John Taylor, a former employee of the restaurant from Brownsville, Brooklyn, and his 30-year-old accomplice Craig Godineaux, a Bronx native. Taylor forced his former manager, Jean Auguste, to summon the six employees to his office under the pretense of an important meeting. The seven employees were taken into the restaurant's freezer, bound and gagged at gunpoint, had plastic bags placed over their heads, and were each shot in the head with a Bryco-Jennings Model J38 .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol. One victim was also shot in the chest, and eight shell casings were found. Two victims survived: Jaquione Johnson, who was shot from the top of his head with the bullet traveling between the cerebral hemispheres and out the mouth, and Patricio Castro, who dialed 9-1-1. Police discovered an undisclosed amount of money missing from the safe.
Arrests and trial
The NYPD arrested Taylor and Godineaux less than 48 hours after the killings. Evidence included eyewitness testimony, ballistics, and fingerprints. Godineaux pleaded guilty on January 22, 2001, and was later sentenced to life in prison. On November 19, 2002, Taylor was convicted of five counts of first-degree murder, and on November 26 the jury sentenced him to death. Godineaux avoided the death penalty because his childhood IQ test was under 70, legally labeling him as mentally retarded.
Post-conviction
In 2004, New York's highest court struck down the state's death penalty law because of a problem with how juries were instructed. The Queens County District Attorney tried to get an exemption for Taylor's case but failed. On October 23, 2007, the court removed the death sentence from Taylor's verdict, leaving him as the final person on New York's death row. He was then resentenced to life without parole on November 29, 2007, for the five murders. As of 2025, Taylor remains at Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York, where he was sent in 2003. Godineaux is serving his own life without parole term at Shawangunk Correctional Facility in Wallkill, New York, where he was moved in 2001.
More in Attacks on Restaurants in the United States
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