Steak 'n Shake employee arrested after altercation with customer

Karl Etters
Tallahassee Democrat
Luther Parks, 32

A customer at the Steak ‘n Shake on Capital Circle Northwest got more than he ordered following an altercation Monday morning with a drive-thru employee.

After he left the chain restaurant, the victim flagged down a passing Leon County Sheriff’s deputy and reported he was being followed by a man with a gun.

He said he had a verbal exchange with an employee of the burger restaurant through the drive-thru speaker.

After the customer left to go to another restaurant and pulled into traffic, the drive-thru attendant, 32-year-old Luther Parks, approached his vehicle in traffic to confront him, according to LCSO.

In the second restaurant’s drive-thru, the man flagged down the deputy when he saw Parks, armed with a gun, get out of a vehicle.

When the deputy followed Parks’ vehicle and attempted a traffic stop, Parks fled, jumping the median and heading back north. He then pulled back into the Steak ‘n Shake parking lot and fled from the moving vehicle into a wooded area behind the Walmart on West Tennessee Street.

The deputy started to chase him but heard a gunshot and called for backup.

Soon afterward, Parks was caught as he got into a vehicle in the Walmart parking lot. The firearm was found in the wooded lot.

He is being charged with aggravated assault with a firearm, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, burglary of a conveyance, fleeing and resisting arrest without violence.

Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahassee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter.