In the late hours of April 15, 1994, transitioning into the early morning of April 16, a sense of routine work filled the Popeyes restaurant in East Gadsden, Alabama, as employees began their closing duties. Among them was 17-year-old Nathaniel Baker, a young man working alongside his colleagues. As Nathaniel and another 17-year-old employee, Bryant Archer, went to take out the trash, a coworker unlocked the back door for them, unknowingly opening a path to a tragic and violent encounter that
would soon unfold.
Two individuals, 22-year-old Robert Bryant Melson and 17-year-old Cuhuatemoc Hinricky Peraita, a former employee of the restaurant, forced their way into the establishment. Brandishing a. 45-caliber pistol, they quickly took control, ordering Nathaniel, Bryant, and two other employees, 23-year-old Darrell Collier and 18-year-old Tamika Collins, into the restaurant's office. There, under threat of violence, the employees were forced to open the safe, from which over $2,100 was stolen. The terror for the four young workers was far from over as they were then herded into the confining space of the restaurant's freezer.
Once the employees were locked inside the freezer, a chilling decision was made by their captors. The freezer door was reopened, and Robert Melson unleashed a volley of gunfire upon the defenseless employees. In the aftermath of the brutal attack, Nathaniel Baker, Darrell Collier, and Tamika Collins were fatally wounded. Bryant Archer, despite being shot multiple times, miraculously survived. He managed to crawl from the scene of the carnage to the restaurant's office and call for help, an act of resilience that would prove crucial in the pursuit of justice.
The survivor's ability to identify one of the assailants due to his distinctive haircut quickly led law enforcement to Cuhuatemoc Hinricky Peraita. Within hours, both Peraita and Robert Bryant Melson were apprehended by police. The subsequent legal proceedings brought the full weight of the justice system upon the two men. Robert Melson, identified as the shooter, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. After years of appeals, he was executed by lethal injection on June 8, 2017. Cuhuatemoc Peraita initially received a life sentence for his role in the robbery and murders. However, his path of violence did not end there; he later murdered a fellow inmate and was subsequently sentenced to death, where he remains on death row.
