Detroit White Castle reopens after triple homicide

Detroit — The shot-up glass has been replaced, the bullet holes are mostly gone, and the lobby professionally cleaned at 6301 W. Warren, the White Castle restaurant where three men in their 20s were gunned down on Sept. 9. 

The restaurant, which dates back to December 1969, was closed for a week, from the Sunday of the shooting until Sept. 16. It reopened at 9 that morning.

The restaurant initially posted that it would reopen the day after the shooting, but that timetable changed to allow more time to remove its remnants. 

The glass doors that took more than 20 bullet holes have been replaced. So, too, has the window on the east side of the building, where the OPEN light can be seen from outside.

Bullet holes on the siding near the glass doors, which were visible days after the shooting, are mostly gone, aside from one that hit north of the doors. 

And the lobby area has been professionally cleaned.

Jamie Richardson, a vice president at the Columbus, Ohio-based burger chain, outlined the fixes that would be needed last week in an interview with The Detroit News. 

“When something like this happens, it hurts,” Richardson said of the triple homicide that claimed victims Deshawn Gadson, 20; Trevaughn Anthony, 24; and Rashawn Harrington, 25. “We had three team members working (at the time of the shooting). We’re heartsick over what happened.” 

While Richardson declined to detail how the three victims made their way into the lobby area where they were shot more than an hour after the lobby was closed to the public, he said White Castle is “working closely with police on every aspect” of the investigation.

The morning of the shooting, three employees were spotted cleaning the restaurant. While a second, dedicated crew was later brought in to sanitize the facility, the three employees seen that morning were a district manager who oversees 10
restaurants, the general manager of that restaurant, and a crew manager.

Richardson described the three as dedicated employees who “voluntarily jumped in and did the cleaning,” adding: “I think their instinct was, what can we do? These stores are home for the people who work there.” 

The restaurant did have biohazard kits available for that initial cleaning, he added.

Counseling services have been offered to the employees who were working at the time of the shooting, and employees affected by the weeklong closure were offered the chance to work at other area White Castles, Richardson said.