GMW: Standard Bar Shooting

ATLANTA (MyFOX ATLANTA) - A fatal shooting at an east Atlanta restaurant resulted in an emotional outpouring of grief after the death of bartender John Henderson. The sole survivor of the deadly shooting recounted the last moments of Henderson's life.

Ashley Elder walked FOX 5 cameras through the bar office at the Standard restaurant on Memorial Drive, where she was robbed and her co-worker murdered.

Police said robbers threw a large rock through the glass front door of the restaurant while Henderson was sitting at the bar. Elder said she was in the back office just moments before the robbery. Elder said she had been closing up the Grant Park bar and putting away the night's receipts.

"I came back to look for this paddle lock that I had misplaced actually, and as soon as I got here I heard the door crash in," recalled Elder.

Atlanta homicide detective Anthony Gentile said Henderson was sitting at the bar alone, while Elder was in the back office.

"I believe they were indeed watching the establishment. They knew that they were closed, knew that there were only one or two people in there. And yes it was planned, I believe it was planned," said Detective Gentile.

"I knew that they would be back here at any second. I looked to see what I could do and I decided that my best bet was just to go down to my knees and cover my head and wait for them to come back here," said Elder.

Gentile said three gunmen approached Henderson at the bar and started rifling through the cash register, and then one man turned and shot Henderson once in the leg.

Elder said two different men approached her while she was in the office.

"I said, 'please don't shoot, my grandmother died and my mom couldn't handle it' and with shaking and my hands on my head and he walked up to me at that point and I don't know what was going through his mind, but he put the gun to my head and told me I needed to come out here and lay on the floor," said Elder.

Elder said eventually Henderson was brought back to the small office to join her.

"I'm almost a 100% sure that he said, "Ash they shot me". That was the first time we'd seen each other since they had broken in and I looked him dead in the eyes and he just looked, he looked stunned," recounted Elder.

Henderson was later shot a second time in the same leg.

"We believe it was two separate gunmen who shot him, one behind the bar and a second one in the office," said Detective Gentile.

"I unlocked the file cabinet; they reached in a grabbed the money. I don't know what happened; there [was] no room. I don't know exactly what happened, went back down, heard six more shots," Elder said.

Investigators said that at some point at the end of that hallway, one of the gunmen turned and fired multiple shots into the office door. The rounds penetrated the office door and one of them struck Henderson in the head, killing him.

"He was gone at that point. I would like to believe that when I was praying for him with my hands on him, he heard me," said Elder.

Paramedics were unable to revive Henderson and he was pronounced dead at the hospital a short time later.

Catching Henderson's killers has become a top priority at the Atlanta Police Department. Two months have passed since Henderson's shooting and promising leads have continued to come in.

"If we can get that first person in this office, things will steam roll from there. The other three or four, they will be caught," said Detective Gentile.

"It's very scary, it's hard to think about four guys who shot your friend out there running around, it's incredibly scary," said Elder.

Anyone with information on the shooting should call the Crimestoppers tipline at 404-577-TIPS. The reward in the case, with the help of the community, now stands at $50,000. Information can be left anonymously.