Flint, Michigan is well known for it’s violence, and excessive amount of shootings, but something unexpected even to the Flint community happened on April 21. David Fuller, a 26-year-old delivery driver, was shot and killed while making a pizza delivery to what we now know was an abandoned home . The alleged shooter, 18-year-old Kevin Thompson Jr., turned himself in to the Flint police on Monday afternoon.
Fuller was out making what he thought would be his last pizza delivery of the night, and then the unexpected happened. Fuller pulled into the driveway of the abandoned home when his car was reportedly approached by Thompson, and he was shot and killed. The shooting happened around 1 a.m. on Tuesday morning, and neighbors immediately called the police to report hearing the gun shots . When the Flint police arrived, they found Fuller dead inside his car.
Investigators still don’t know the motive behind the murder, but at least now they have the alleged shooter in custody and he can be prosecuted.
Fuller was an employee at the Cottage Inn Pizza on Miller Road near the I-75 overpass in Flint, Michigan. The manager at the Cottage Inn is now telling the media that they are changing the delivery policies, in an attempt to make things safer for their drivers. No pizza will be delivered outside of a certain area in Flint after dark from now on.
The owners of Cottage Inn are offering to pay for the funeral themselves. They also were offering a reward for information leading to Fuller’s shooter, but that has been withdrawn now that Thompson has turned himself in.
Delivery drivers all over Flint are shaken up by this latest episode of gun violence against one of their own. Norman Murad is the owner of Happy’s Pizza which is also located in Flint, and he has been thinking about making some policy changes of his own as a result of the shooting.
“I might stop delivering a little earlier because safety is my main thing in this business,” Murad said.
“My drivers deliver to certain areas and my drivers only carry about $20 on them. I don’t let them carry the Happy’s Pizza sign for safety,” Murad said.
Sometimes you can do everything right though, and still end up having a problem, which was unfortunately the case for David Fuller.
Thompson was arraigned in court this morning and appeared before Judge Nathaniel Perry. He was charged with first-degree murder, felony firearm, armed robbery and gang membership felonies. There is no specified court date for his trail to begin, but Thompson currently remains in custody at the County Jail.
[Image courtesy of Pizza Slayer]