Cellphone deflects bullet fired at Midtown club valet

By Mike Morris, Larry Hartstein and

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Valet John Garber called his boss Thursday morning, but not from his cell phone. The phone took a bullet for him hours earlier.

Garber was standing in front of Halo in Midtown about 3 a.m. when two men who'd been kicked out of the bar allegedly returned with guns and opened fire, according to authorities. One bullet struck Garber's cell phone, which was in his breast pocket. He suffered only minor injuries.

"You owe me a new cell phone," the 30-year-old Garber told his boss, National Parking owner Marc Ebersole, good-naturedly.

"He said, ‘I'm fine, everything's good,'" Ebersole recalled in an interview with the AJC.

Ebersole said Garber then went to sleep. He had worked the entire night leading up to the shooting outside Halo, the nightclub on West Peachtree Street at Biltmore Place.

Two suspects were arrested a short time later, and two handguns were recovered from their vehicle. Police identified the suspects as Desmond Wright, 27, of Hartford, Conn., and Timothy Wright, 26, of Lawrenceville.

Garber was treated at the scene.

Garber, a manager, was among six valets Ebersole assigned to Halo on Wednesday night, in addition to an off-duty police officer.

"I woke up this morning, the first thing I do is turn on the news, and the first thing they said is a valet had been shot," Ebersole said. "They said where it was, and I knew it was one of my guys."

In 32 years in the parking business, Ebersole said, "we've had bullets go off around us but never anyone shot."

Ebersole said he was grateful and relieved no one was seriously injured.

Then he added: "Of course we're going to take care of his cell phone."