On
this date, December 14, 1993, Nathan Dunlap shot dead 4 people at the Chuck E.
Cheese’s restaurant in Aurora, Adams County, Colorado, USA. I will post
information about this shooter from Murderpedia.
A.K.A.: "Chuck E. Cheese Killer"
Classification: Mass murderer
Characteristics: Revenge - Robbery
Number of victims: 4
Date of murder: December 14, 1993
Date of birth: 1974
Victims profile: Restaurant employees Colleen O'Connor,
17; Benjamin Grant, 17; Sylvia Crowell, 19; and night manager Marge Kohlberg,
50
Method of murder: Shooting
Location: Aurora, Adams County, Colorado, USA
Status: Sentenced to death on May 17, 1996
Nathan
Dunlap was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of four
employees at an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant.
Fifty-year-old Margaret Kohlberg watched the clock. It was nearly
10 p.m. on a Tuesday night in December 1993, and her crew was antsy. A family
birthday party had stayed late at the Aurora Chuck E. Cheese, and the parents
were just now bundling up their two kids against the winter cold. Margaret
headed back to the office to start tallying the night's receipts. She'd go home
in a few minutes, after she got her teenage workers out the door.
Sylvia Crowell started cleaning the salad bar. The 19-year-old was
balancing a full-time work schedule and classes at Metro State, but that day
she'd gone shopping with her best friend, Carole Richins, before they'd clocked
in for the night shift at the pizzeria. Carole had just left, shouting, "I
love you!" over the restaurant's cacophony of arcade games and animated
toys.
Nearby, Ben Grant, a high school junior, turned on the vacuum, and
its whirring helped drown out the noise. He tossed the cord behind him,
absentmindedly sucking up pizza crumbs and food left crushed into the carpet by
the kids. Colleen O'Connor was helping close that night too, but she was
distracted. The 17-year-old had called her mom during a break three hours
before and found out her parents were giving her a car.
In the kitchen, Bobby Stephens scrubbed away. He hadn't been
scheduled to work that day, but he needed the cash. Just 20, he had a
seven-month-old baby boy at home. With the holidays coming up, he had stopped
in to ask for extra hours, and they had put him to work. The small crew
continued closing, the routine so familiar that they moved with the robotic
motions of the mechanized creatures that danced, twirled, and sang around them.
Sylvia didn't even hear the intruder come up behind her. Silently,
he raised the .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol to her left ear and squeezed.
Bang.
As she fell, he looked away. He couldn't stomach the sight of gore
and blood. He moved quickly to where Ben was vacuuming.
Bang.
The bullet entered near Ben's eye, lodging in his brain as he fell
to the ground.
Colleen saw him coming. He was a boy with a gun; he had too-big
brown eyes above hollowed cheeks and a mouth that twisted in a half-smile.
Kneeling in front of him, she begged for her life, raising her arms, her fists
clenched, as he held a gun just 18 inches from her head.
"Don't shoot," she cried. "I won't tell."
"I have to," the shooter said as he pulled the trigger
again.
Bang.
Inside the kitchen, Bobby heard the three sharp cracks, but he
didn't stop working. He figured it was probably Sylvia or Colleen popping
balloons. He didn't have time to think about it much before the kid with the
gun barged into the kitchen. Tall but gaunt, like a boy who's not quite yet a
man, the intruder was wearing a jacket, gloves with holes cut out at the
knuckles, and a baseball cap perched backward on his head. Stunned, Bobby
started to say hello. Half-smirking, the shooter raised his arm.
Bang.
The bullet entered Bobby's jaw and sent him sprawling to the
floor. It felt like a burn, a cigarette scorching his skin, and then like a
baseball bat slamming into his face. He watched as a pair of black high-top
shoes headed toward the office. Margaret was still counting the evening
receipts. She did what he asked and opened the safe. The last words she heard
were "thank you."
Bang.
He shot her in the ear. Then he grabbed her bag, filled it with
game tokens, key chains, cards, $1,591 and change.
Bang.
He shot her again, in the other ear, just to make sure.
Six .25-caliber shell casings dotted the floor. The shooting spree
couldn't have lasted more than five minutes.
It would only take a few hours after the Chuck E. Cheese massacre
for police to track down the shooter: 19-year-old Nathan Jerard Dunlap was at
his girlfriend's apartment. The couple was having sex when his pager went off
with a message from his mom, who was relaying a message from the cops. The
investigators had heard he ate dinner at the restaurant that night and wanted
to ask him a few questions. Dunlap agreed to meet. Before returning to his
home, an apartment he shared with his mother, the teenager washed his hands
with hydrogen peroxide and jumped in the shower, then stashed some of the money
under the freezer. Back at his home, the police questioned him, swabbed his
hands for gunshot residue, and took his clothes into evidence. About 12 hours
after the murders the police returned to Dunlap's home and cuffed and arrested
the teen.
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