Robbers shoot, kill bartender execution-style

Bartender John Henderson was quick to pick up a bar tab for a friend and just as quick to tell a mouthy customer to pipe down.

“He’s just a straight person,” friend Gene Leath said. “He doesn’t beat around the bush.”

With his bushy black hair, Henderson was a well-known face in the Cabbagetown and Grant Park area, having bartended for a couple years at Six Feet Under, a popular bar and restaurant on a stretch of Memorial Drive known as the “Memorial Corridor,” near Oakland Cemetery and just east of downtown Atlanta.

Henderson, 27, was shot and killed execution-style during a robbery early Wednesday at a bar where he was waiting tables, Standard Food & Spirits, just down the street from Six Feet Under.

It’s an area that has seen a revitalization in recent years as more people have become willing to make in-town neighborhoods their home.

Four armed men pulled off the robbery at 4:15 a.m. Wednesday, when all customers had left the business and Henderson and a female bartender were getting ready to close up and leave, said Atlanta police Lt. Keith Meadows, commander of the homicide unit.

The robbers tossed a big brick through the bar’s front glass door, shattering it, and stepped through the door frame, Meadows said.

All of them, in their early to late 20s, were armed with weapons —- three with handguns and the fourth might have been carrying a rifle, Meadows said.

“They knew where they were going,” Meadows said. “They may have cased the place out before they went through with it.”

The robbers demanded money and forced the victims into a back office, where they were ordered to lie face down on the floor, Meadows said.

The gunmen stole money from the bar’s cash register, as well as cash that was in money bags in the office.

One of the robbers stood over Henderson and shot him, though he had not resisted or put up a fight, Meadows said. Henderson was shot twice in the head and once in each leg. He died later at Grady Memorial Hospital.

The gunmen spared the woman’s life. “For whatever reason, they didn’t want to kill her,” Meadows said. “One of the robbers specifically said, ‘Don’t shoot the girl.’ “

The suspects closed the office door and fired gunshots through it —- a warning not to call police —- as they fled, Meadows said.

There were no other witnesses and the bar’s surveillance cameras did not capture the suspects. But detectives hope a similar recent robbery in the area might yield clues to identify the assailants.

About two weeks ago, on a Sunday evening, two men got out of a small, dark-colored SUV and robbed a male employee in Standard’s parking lot, Atlanta police Detective Anthony Gentile said.

One of the robbers fired one round at the man as they fled in the vehicle, missing the victim, Gentile said.

The Standard did not open for business later Wednesday, and a piece of plywood had been put on the front door in place of the missing glass. A man who identified himself as one of the bar’s owners declined to comment.

Staff writer Christopher Quinn contributed to this article.

DONATIONS

> To donate to the John Henderson Memorial Fund, go to www.grantpark.org and follow the link to make a donation via credit card or mail donations by check or money order to: Grant Park Neighborhood Association, P. O. Box 89235, Atlanta, GA 30312. Please designate “John Henderson Memorial Fund” on the donation.