The owner of the Pita Stop restaurant, a Middle Eastern institution in Birmingham’s Southside, said he had to shoot an intoxicated man who beat him Saturday in a violent dispute over a bill.

The shooting happened just after 12 p.m. at the restaurant in the 1100 block of 12th Street South.

Mohammad “Matt” Islam, 41, said he has worked in the restaurant, which opened in 1977, since 1999 and purchased it in 2021.

Islam said a man began arguing that he had paid for his meal with a credit card but none of the three women working there that night had taken his payment.

Islam said he asked the man to open the credit card app on his phone and the man began pointing to a notice of a payment, but Islam said it was for a meal from another Birmingham restaurant.

“It was not from ours,” Islam told AL.com on Sunday.

Islam said he gave the phone back to the man, who he believes was under the influence.

“For a fraction of a second, I thought he understood,” Islam said. Then, the man said he was “going to f..k up” Islam, the restaurant owner said.

“The next thing I know, something hit me and I’m on the ground and he was hitting me over and over. There was blood on the floor,” Islam said. “I was trying to make him understand there was a miscommunication.”

Islam said in that moment he feared he would die.

“I thought this was how my life was going to end,” Islam said.

A customer picked the man up off Islam and told him to leave, Islam said. “If it was not for him, I’d be dead,” Islam said.

The man who attacked him, however, did not leave, Islam said.

“I didn’t know what he was going to do to the employees or the customers .. I got a gun,” Islam said. “The customer was asking him to leave; I was afraid for them. I had to shoot.”

Islam said he shot the man three times and then called police, who stayed on the line with him until an officer arrived.

Sgt. LaQuitta Wade said the customer was taken to UAB Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Authorities have not released the man’s name or commented further on the shooting.

Islam said he was taken to the Birmingham Police Administration Building, interviewed and released. “So far, it’s self-defense, but they are still investigating,” Islam said.

The restaurant, he said, reopened Saturday evening.

Islam said his face is swollen, his body aches and he struggled to sleep.

Islam is originally from Qatar and has long been a fixture of the popular dining spot near UAB where customers often asked for him by name. Islam said those who know him will likely find it shocking he took someone’s life.

“I never thought in a million years this would happen,” Islam said. “This will haunt me for the rest of my life.”

In all, three people were killed in Birmingham Saturday, including one near a food truck in the Lakeview District and another inside a southwest Birmingham home.

On Sunday morning, someone was shot to death outside the Waffle House in the 2200 block of Center Point Parkway.

Countywide, there have been 183 homicides in 2023.