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Teenage fast-food worker is shot
By ANGELA MOORE © St. Petersburg Times, published July 24, 2000 TAMPA -- A 16-year-old McDonald's employee was shot twice while she worked Sunday night by a man who police believe is a family member. The young girl survived the violent attack. Wyneaki Madeline Hart had emergency surgery at Tampa General Hospital Sunday night and was in critical condition. Meanwhile, police scoured the Hillsborough Avenue and 19th Street neighborhood where the shooting took place. Police said they were looking for a stocky man in his mid 30s, who drove away in a small blue car that may have been a Honda or a Nissan. But others said the man they are looking for is the girl's stepfather. Ernest Thomas' 16-year-old son, Christopher, works with Wyneaki at McDonald's, and was on-duty with her Sunday night. He told his father what happened. "He said the man came in and asked to speak with this girl, so my son brought her up to the front," Thomas said. "As soon as she came up there, the guy just started shooting her. My son said he was standing right next to her when she got shot. He can't even talk right now. He's just 16 years old, this girl is his friend, and he watched her get shot." Even worse, the man said, was that his son told him the shooter was the girl's stepfather. Thomas waited for his son outside the McDonald's amid a crowd of onlookers. Christopher waited with the other employees and customers in an area roped off by police to talk to detectives. Tampa police spokesman Joe Durkin said the McDonald's was not crowded at 8:30 p.m., the time of the shooting. Still, at least four young children witnessed the shooting, and detectives interviewed them, too. Durkin said it was too early in the investigation Sunday night to say whether the suspect is Wyneaki's stepfather. "At this time, we're still trying to clearly identify the suspect," Durkin said. "But we believe this was somebody well-known to her."
 © St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved. 
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