Mississippi Waffle House Waitress Slain After Asking Patron Not to Smoke

A former firefighter shot and killed a waitress in a Mississippi Waffle House after he was asked not to smoke in the restaurant, officials said.

Local police said Johnny Max Mount, 45, shot the 52-year-old longtime waitress Julia Brightwell with a 9mm handgun around 1 a.m. on Friday morning at the Waffle House where she had been working for eight years, the Sun Herald reports.

The murder in Biloxi, Mississippi, shook locals who knew Brightwell as a kindly presence in the restaurant. Police arrested Mount as he was walking out of the restaurant and charged him with first-degree murder.

Mount was a Biloxi firefighter for 10 years before suffering a traumatic brain injury in a 2002 traffic accident.