KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City, Missouri, man faces multiple charges in the murder of a man and injury of another at a Popeyes restaurant over the weekend.
Joseph Watson, 22, is charged with second-degree felony murder, three counts of armed criminal action, unlawful use of a weapon and first-degree assault.
KCPD was called to the restaurant around 8 p.m. Saturday.
Detectives determined Watson was engaged in a dispute with the living victim before the shooting.
Surveillance video from Popeyes showed the first victim leaving his backpack at a table and going up to the counter to speak with an employee.
At 7:55 p.m., Watson and a second person entered the restaurant and sat next to the first victim’s table.
Watson and the victim began arguing not long after.
Court documents stated Watson stood up and appeared to be “clutching something in his coat.”
In the surveillance video, Watson hit the first victim in the face as he walked past him, pulled out a rifle and pointed it at the victim.
The first victim continued to yell at Watson and the other person as they walked out the door, and Watson spit on him — the victim spit back.
Watson then allegedly fired one shot, which entered the first victim’s cheek on one side and exited the other cheek before it struck the second victim, who was standing at the counter.
The second victim, identified by police as 28-year-old Decorrian Partee, died at the restaurant.
Detectives were told by the girlfriend of Partee that the two were DoorDashing. She decided to stay in the car as he went inside to grab the Popeyes order, per a court document.
After she heard the gunshot, she ran inside and found her boyfriend on the ground.
KCPD was able to trace Watson to the crime via surveillance video, as well as through information he provided a nearby marijuana dispensary for its rewards program. Blaze, the dispensary, also captured video that documented Watson leaving the shop at 7:53 p.m., just minutes before he was documented arriving at Popeyes.
City cameras also captured Watson and the second person running from 33rd and Wabash to near 35th and Wabash.
After police executed a search warrant and took Watson into custody, he told police he was at his home all night Saturday and did not leave his residence.
However, once police told him he was captured on multiple cameras and documented using the Blaze rewards program, he requested a lawyer, according to a court document.
During further interviews, Watson’s girlfriend told police he had taken his gun with him to go to Blaze, and her description matched the description given by a Popeyes employee. Additionally, Watson’s mother confirmed he left the residence the night of the murder, the court document stated.
Watson is being held in the Jackson County Detention Center on a $250,000 cash-only bond.
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Annual homicide details and data for the Kansas City area are available through the KSHB 41 News Homicide Tracker, which was launched in 2015. Read the KSHB 41 News Mug Shot Policy.
