Remembering the Wendy's Massacre Victims 25 Years Later

The sign outside Wendy’s in Flushing, Queens, located at 40-12 Main Street.

To this day, the brutal shootings of seven workers at the Wendy's fast food restaurant in Flushing, Queens on May 24, 2000 remains one of the most horrific crime stories I've ever told.

As the clock approached midnight, NYPD investigators discovered five employees dead in a basement freezer, shot execution-style. Two others had survived.

Exterior of the freezer where 7 Wendy’s employees were shot on May 24, 2000.

It was just before 11 p.m. closing time when two men, John Taylor--and his much taller associate, Craig Godineaux--walked into the Wendy's on 40th Road. 22 year old Anita Smith was working the cash register, the only woman on duty. She planned to start college in the fall, so she could teach children with autism. Anita recognized John Taylor. He had once been the assistant manager at Wendy's Flushing, and he'd hired Anita a year and a half earlier. But Taylor later lost his job.

Taylor and Godineaux ordered food and went into separate bathrooms. When they came out, Taylor started talking to the manager, Jean Auguste. The two men went downstairs.

Jaquoine Johnson, 18, was working the grill and free-styling some rap songs. Godineaux began chatting with him about his favorite performers.

Suddenly, manager Jean Auguste's voice was heard on the intercom telling his six employees to come downstairs to the basement for a meeting. They dutifully filed down the staircase, one by one, not realizing the fate that awaited them.

"John (Taylor) was like, 'Everybody back up and get down on the floor!'' Johnson told me in 2020, when I interviewed one of the 2 survivors for PIX11 News. "John had the gun on everybody and Craig duct-taped everybody up."

2020 Interview with Wendy's Survivor Jaquoine Johnson was conducted before 20th anniversary of the shooting

(PIX11 YouTube).

Craig Godineaux then put plastic bags over the heads of all seven employees, but the bag on Jaquoine Johnson's head didn't cover his right eye. All of the workers were told to get down on their knees.

"So, that's when they shot Jean," Johnson remembered. "Then Anita started screaming. They shot her. I'm right next to Jeremy. He (Taylor) passed the gun to Craig. 'Craig, take the gun.' I figured he was going to shoot me. Instead of shooting me, he goes to the corner, he shoots Ramon, Patrick, Ali and then me. I was the last one to get shot."

Five of the workers lay dead in the Wendy's freezer.

Jaquoine Johnson had been shot in the top of the head but the bullet traveled between the two lobes of his brain and exited through his mouth. Only one of his co-workers was still alive, Patricio Castro. Another colleague, Ali Ibadat, had fallen over onto Castro's knees. The bullet had only grazed Castro's cheek.

Castro told me in 2023 that he checked to make sure the killers were gone, before hoisting the more critically wounded Jaquoine Johnson over his shoulder and carrying him upstairs to the main floor at Wendy's. Castro called 911 and first responders arrived to take both men to the hospital.

2023 Interview with the 2nd Wendy's Survivor, after he reached out to me.

(PIX11 YouTube).

Within 48 hours of the shootings, detectives found the two suspects. Investigators had discovered John Taylor's fingerprint on a box holding plastic bags in the basement.

John Taylor was still carrying the .380 semi-automatic used in the shooting.

He had met Craig Godineaux at a men's clothing store in the Jamaica Bus Terminal, where they both worked as security guards. Their 'take' from the robbery/executions was $2,400 in coins, which were found at Taylor's hideout.

The people who lost their lives in such a brutal way at Wendy's represented the rich diversity of Queens, employees working hard to make an honest living.

Manager Jean Auguste was just 27, a Haitian-American engaged to be married.

Ramon Nazario was a 44 year old father of two who was born in Puerto Rico.

Ali Ibadat, 42, was a native of Pakistan who used to send money home every week.

Jeremy Mele, an 18 year old employee from the Jersey Shore, wanted to join the military. Anita Smith, 22, was the oldest of four and impressed her parents with her compassion.

John Taylor and Craig Godineaux were sentenced to life in prison.

I interviewed Godineaux at Shawangunk Correctional Center in 2020. A few months later, when I showed up in the visitor's room at Clinton Correctional Center near the Canadian border to speak to Taylor, he left the room without sitting down.

Interview with one of the Wendy's massacre shooters was conducted before the 20th anniversary of the crime.

(PIX11 YouTube)

Even though the Wendy's restaurant was dismantled on Main Street and replaced with a mini-mall, it's not a place family members of the dead want to be near.

"When I walk there, I go to the other side of the street," the brother of Ramon Nazario once said.

The events of May 24, 2000--a Wednesday night--continue to torment the families left behind. Their pain will never be erased, and they don't want Anita, Jean, Ramon, Ali and Jeremy to ever be forgotten.