One day after police shared photos of two suspects wanted on aggravated assault charges in connection with a stabbing at a southeast Atlanta Cook Out restaurant last month, one suspect turned herself in to authorities.
Kenya Pierce, 17, is accused of stabbing her co-worker during a Dec. 9 dispute at the fast food establishment, Atlanta police said. Investigators released photos of Pierce and a second suspect, 29-year-old Rontavius Dawson, on Tuesday.
Pierce surrendered at the Fulton County Jail the following day, online records show.
Dawson, who is accused of hitting and choking the same woman, has not been located.
The victim, Shaquanda Franks, was seriously injured in the stabbing when Pierce’s knife allegedly punctured her intestines, police said. Officers were called to Grady Memorial Hospital and learned about the stabbing while Franks was in surgery the next day. No one called 911 from the Cook Out when the incident took place.
According to an incident report obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Franks and Pierce were co-workers and Dawson is Franks’ ex-boyfriend.
Franks told police the incident began while she was at work with Pierce and her current boyfriend, who was a restaurant manager, the report said. Pierce informed Dawson that Franks and her new boyfriend were both at the restaurant, then opened the door for Dawson when he came to Cook Out to confront the couple. At the time, the dining room was closed to customers but the drive-thru window remained open.
Dawson “tried to attack” Franks’ boyfriend, the report said, but Franks intervened. Dawson instead hit Franks, who ran to the bathroom, where Franks followed and continued to hit her, according to the report.
“It was so loud you could actually hear it,” Dominiqua Franks, Shaquanda Franks’ sister and a fellow co-worker at Cook Out, told Channel 2 Action News. “You know when someone is actually fighting, you can actually hear when someone is physically hitting? That’s what you heard in the bathroom.”
Dawson then left, but once he was gone, a confrontation between Shaquanda Franks and Pierce escalated into a physical fight. Pierce stabbed Franks multiple times, the report said.
Franks’ boyfriend took her to Grady when she realized she’d been stabbed, according to the report.
Pierce remains in the Fulton jail without bond.
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
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