Good Samaritan Fatally Shot While Giving Away $20 Bills and Paying for Strangers' Meals

A Good Samaritan in Florida met his untimely death on Sunday, April 7, when he was shot while handing out $20 bills and paying for strangers’ meals at a restaurant. A suspect has been arrested in the case.

According to a Facebook post by the Alachua County Sheriff’s office, 41-year-old Craig Brewer lost his life after getting into an altercation with the suspect, Ezekiel Hicks, 25 at the Waffle House on West Newberry Road in Gainesville.

ABC News reports that witnesses revealed Brewer had gotten into an argument earlier with a female acquaintance of Hicks. The woman reportedly confronted Brewer because he did not pay for her meal along with the others.

Hicks got involved and eventually went out of the restaurant to get a 9mm Glock pistol out of his car. What happened from that point onward is captured in the Sheriff Office’s post:

“The suspect left the restaurant and, while outside, armed himself with a handgun. Despite the efforts of at least one bystander, the suspect went back inside, approached the victim, and a physical fight started. As the fight continued, the suspect took the handgun from his pants and shot Brewer in the head.”

The department further revealed that the entire incident was caught on surveillance video and that it didn’t take officers too much time to locate and arrest Hicks near the crime scene. They had been responding to requests from the restaurant to help clear a large crowd that gathered around the time of the crime.

Both Brewer and Hicks are fathers to young children and both have past criminal records.

Hicks, who reportedly admitted to firing the gun, has since been arrested on charges of first-degree murder and carrying a concealed weapon without a license.

“Very seldom do you have an incident from start to finish on video that ends in a murder,” the Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Lt. Brett Rhodenizer said about the murder.

Rhodenizer also told The Gainsville Sun:

“What we’re trying to find out in the days ahead is if this was truly a verbal argument that turned into a murder case or if there is something missing there.”

Dailymail.com reports that both Brewer and Hicks are fathers to young children and both have past criminal records.

While Brewer spent close to ten years in prison for charges related to the possession and sale of cocaine, Hicks was also arrested on drug charges in April of 2017.

Brewer’s death brings to mind that of Jacquelyn Smith, a 52-year-old woman who was allegedly stabbed to death last December after rolling down her car window to give money to a homeless woman.

In a shocking update to Smith’s case, however, the police arrested her husband and step-daughter earlier this year on first-degree murder charges after a thorough investigation.