10/19/2007 12:01:00 AM
Man shot, killed at Barnacles
Police: No charges to be filed in incident
By Ryan Crawford
Staff Writer
NORCROSS - A regular patron at the Barnacles restaurant in Norcross was shot and killed early Thursday morning.
The homicide is the 41st in Gwinnett this year - the most the county has ever seen, said Ted Bailey, the chief forensic investigator at the Gwinnett Medical Examiner's office.
"And we've still got 2 1/2 months to go," Bailey said Thursday.
The old record was 40 homicides in 2006.
Detective Jason Carter of the Norcross Police Department said he doesn't expect any charges to be filed in Thursday's shooting death of Juan Ojeda, a 54-year-old Spanish man who regularly goes to Barnacles to play pool.
Ojeda appeared to have been drinking when he entered the restaurant just after midnight and he went to the patio where he asked to join a group of four people who he did not know. The group agreed, but Ojeda soon got on their nerves, Carter said.
When one member of the group said something to Ojeda, he became angry and hit one person and bit another in the neck. Restaurant workers separated the group and Ojeda left and went to his car. Ojeda returned 30 to 40 minutes later with a pistol in hand, Carter said.
People on the deck scattered and one of the patrons had a gun of his own, which he fired as he tried to get away. Carter said it was not an "aimed" shot, but it struck Ojeda in the head, killing him.
The shooter had a concealed weapons permit, and Carter said everything appeared to be in order with that gun.
The general manager of the Norcross Barnacles said he was very surprised by the incident - one his restaurant has never experienced before.
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