Georgia tire shop worker killed while moving customer’s car was in uniform: ‘It was a test drive’

A tire shop employee was fatally shot on the job after a customer mistook him for a car thief, police in Georgia said.

Daniel Gordon, 24, was killed at the Tires Plus in Decatur around 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 31, according to DeKalb County police. Officers arrived to find a man who had been shot multiple times.

Gordon was taken to a hospital where he died, police said. The accused shooter, Quadarius McDowell, was arrested and charged with malice murder.

The 30-year-old went before a judge on Jan. 2 and was denied bond, WAGA reported.

Authorities said McDowell was at the shop to get his car serviced and opened fire on Gordon, who he thought was trying to steal his car. The worker was test driving McDowell’s car in the parking lot when gunshots rang out.

Now, Gordon’s co-workers are mourning and struggling to wrap their minds around the incident.

“I don’t understand,” colleague John Claude Edwards told WSB-TV. “He (McDowell) saw him in uniform. He’s got his bag with the work order in it and everything to test-drive the vehicle. Why would you think anything different? It was a test drive.”

A second co-worker described Gordon as an “ambitious” young man with dreams of becoming an advanced technician, WAGA reported.

“Just being able to teach somebody who was so interested,” the co-worker told the station. “He wanted to move up and become an A-Tech like me. He would ask so many questions.”

McDowell ran after the shooting but was arrested a short time later, according to police. He was booked into the DeKalb County Jail where he remains held without bond as of Jan. 3, online records show.

Decatur is less than 10 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta.