WAFFLE HOUSE CUSTOMER ACCUSED OF KILLING TEEN EMPLOYEE AFTER BECOMING ANGRY WHILE HIS FOOD WAS BEING PREPARED

PEOPLE

 

Waffle House Customer Accused of Killing Teen Employee After Getting Angry While Food Was Being Prepared

By Emily Palmer  Published on September 16, 2024 04:12PM EDT

 

Police are looking for a 38-year-old man they believe fatally shot an 18-year-old Waffle House employee in North Carolina while his food was being prepared around 12:40 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 13.

 

Laurinburg police have issued an arrest warrant for Florwer Carlin Lizano, Jr., who is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of Burlie Dawson Locklear III, Lieutenant Detective Jeremy White confirms to PEOPLE in a phone interview.

 

Known as “Carlos” or “Chulo” – Spanish for “Cool” – Lizano is additionally charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and discharging a firearm into an occupied building, according to White.

 

Within minutes of gunfire, police responded to the Waffle House in Laurinburg, where they found Locklear inside the restaurant “suffering from a gunshot wound,” police said in a press release.

 

Police say Lizano – who is allegedly depicted in surveillance images reviewed by PEOPLE standing at the Waffle House ordering window and leaving the restaurant early Friday – had ordered food and “while the food was being prepared, the suspect became more agitated and verbally abusive toward the employees.”

 

White tells PEOPLE that Lizano waited for his order and grabbed his food to go before firing shots.

 

As he walked back to his dark gray Chevrolet, which police describe as possibly a 2014 model, Lizano allegedly “turned and fired two shots in the direction of the business," striking the 18-year-old, per police. Lizano allegedly fled the scene, according to police.

 

Known as “Pudie” or “Stump,” Locklear, who graduated from Hoke County High School earlier this year, later died at Scotland Memorial Hospital, according to his online obituary which featured a smiling photograph of the teen with a cross hanging from his neck.

 

“Dawson was truly one of a kind,” his family wrote in his obituary, calling him “a jokester and a spirit lifter,” who enjoyed fishing, hunting and playing basketball and video games.

 

“Our hearts are shattered but our love and memories will never be broken and neither will the love that he left behind,” his family wrote.

 

Growing up in a tight-knit family with two siblings, his family credited his paternal aunts and uncles with helping raise him along with his parents.

 

“No matter how you felt, he could make you laugh and smile,” his family wrote in his obituary, which noted that he loved his family and friends “with everything he had.”

 

“Whether you saw him helping cook bloomin' onions or waiting your table at Waffle House he had that infectious smile,” his family recalled, adding that he planned to follow “in the family line of doing electrical work and wanted to own an electrical company one day just like his Papa.”

 

Lizano is “known to frequent” Laurinburg as well as bordering Dillon, S.C., as well as Florida, per his wanted persons poster.

 

Lizano was previously sentenced in federal court in Florence, S.C. as a felon in possession of a firearm, per a press release by the District of South Carolina’s District Attorney’s Office, which misidentified his age at the time, according to White, who confirmed the conviction and details of the case.

 

In 2017 Lizano was sentenced to four years in federal prison, followed by a three-year supervised release which would have ended this year, per the release.

 

In evidence presented at the guilty plea hearing, per the release, Lizano – who was already a convicted felon – was arrested by the Dillon Police Department “after he was found asleep in a parked car with a loaded firearm in his belt.” The firearm had been reported stolen from Lumberton, N.C.

 

“We’re still continuing the search for Lizano,” White tells PEOPLE Monday afternoon. “We encourage the public to keep coming forward with any information of the whereabouts of Lizano or sightings of Lizano.”

 

Lizano is described by police as a light skin Black man with long dreadlocks, a beard and mustache, who left the Waffle House early Friday, wearing a dark blue pull-over hoodie, blue jeans and white shoes.

 

If you have seen Florwer Carlin Lizano, Jr., or have additional information about his whereabouts, you may call the Laurinburg Police Department 24/7 at 910-276-3211 or contact Scotland Crimestoppers by downloading the free mobile app P3tips, visiting the website www.scotlandcountycs.com or calling 910-266-8146.