Report: Orlando man charged in shooting at Missouri restaurant over unpaid tab

COLUMBIA, Mo. — An Orlando man was arrested in Missouri over the weekend, accused of shooting another man in the face at a restaurant after leaving without paying the bill.

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According to an incident report, Colombia police officers responded to the restaurant in the 500 block of East Nifong Blvd. just before 11:30 p.m. Saturday and arrived to find a man with a gunshot wound to the face.

Officers administered medical care until emergency medical services arrived and took the victim to a hospital where, according to the report, an officer overheard a doctor telling him he might lose sight in one of his eyes as a result of the gunshot.

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Witnesses described the shooter as a Hispanic man who was no longer at the scene.

According to police, a bartender said the suspect, later identified as 36-year-old Alexis Alberto Gonzalez of Orlando, had been at the restaurant’s bar with a woman when the bartender cut him off from ordering more alcohol because he already appeared to be intoxicated.

The witness told police Gonzalez walked out of the restaurant without paying for the tab with the woman walking out shortly after him.

According to the report, the victim, who was another customer at the restaurant, followed the woman outside while recording her with his cell phone, at which point the victim and the woman who had been with Gonzalez got into a “physical altercation” outside the restaurant.

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That’s when police say the victim went back to the bar before Gonzalez also reentered the restaurant and shot him with a handgun.

Police say they reviewed surveillance video from the restaurant, backing up the witness statements.

According to the report, one of the witnesses found a cell phone belonging to the woman who was with Gonzalez, which they ultimately used to identify him based on previous calls made to it.

Police later found the woman and Gonzalez at an address in Columbia and took them both into custody.

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In an interview, police say Gonzalez admitted to being involved in a disturbance at the restaurant and having a handgun at the time. When asked what his current address was, police say Gonzalez gave them a location in Florida instead of where he was known to stay in Columbia at the time.

Gonzales was ultimately booked into the Boone County, MO, jail on charges of first-degree assault with serious physical injury, armed criminal action, and unlawful use of a weapon.

He remains there on no bond.

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