The man accused of shooting four pizza parlor employees to death had been fired from the restaurant over the summer and was said to have threatened to get even.
Nathan Dunlap, a 19-year-old former kitchen worker, was held Wednesday for investigation of murder in the shooting rampage that occurred just after closing time Tuesday at the Chuck E Cheese restaurant in this Denver suburb.A fifth employee was shot in the jaw but escaped and ran to apartments nearby to call police. He was in fair condition.
All five victims had been shot in the head.
"It appears he may have held a grudge over his firing," said Mike Stiers, police division chief. "The only tie we have right now is that he is a terminated employee, and if that has lingered over time, festered, who knows?"
Dunlap was bitter over the firing but remained friendly with former co-workers and frequently visited them at the restaurant, said Shannon McCurley, a 16-year-old employee.
Dunlap was fired over the summer after arguing with a kitchen manager over work hours, employees told The Denver Post. He occasionally threatened to "get" the manager who fired him, an unidentified employee told the newspaper.
Night manager Margaret Kohlberg, 50, was one of those killed, but the Post's source did not say whether she was the manager who fired Dunlap.
Investigators recovered a semiautomatic handgun.