AMERICAN FORK, Utah — A crowded restaurant, a man making frightening statements, and innocent bystanders not quite sure what to do.
It happened Sunday evening at the Olive Garden in American Fork. Several families were there for what they thought would be a quiet, Sunday meal.
That’s when suddenly, a man walked in making very loud and very ominous threats.
“He just kept saying, 'Nobody is leaving here alive! Nobody is leaving here alive!” said Mercedes Magill.
Magill said Sunday’s meal with her folks only happened because she was exhausted and hungry after working all weekend.
“I was craving Olive Garden, which is random because I work at an Italian restaurant," she said.
But not long after the soup and salad arrived, Magill said things got strange. That’s when the suspect walked in.
“We thought he was on the phone, because he was talking pretty loud. He had his headphones with him, he had an iPad that had a cord to three or four different bags," she recalled.
Magill said he became louder and then started yelling at the staff.
“And then he started saying, ‘I can’t wait to be famous. I can’t wait to be on the cover of a magazine. Nobody is leaving this place alive!'” Magill said.
According to Magill, that’s when it went from annoying to frightening.
On top of that, she said no one seemed to know what to do.
“Our hearts were racing! And we just kind of whispered to each other, 'We should probably check out and leave,'" she said. "The poor server was scared. He was shaking.”
She says someone finally called 911.
American Fork Police Lt. Quinn Adamson said those first responders weren’t initially sure what they were dealing with.
“After they had a chance to de-escalate the situation, they ended up discovering that he was having a mental health episode. But it was still scary for the people that were involved," Adamson said.
Magill said she and her family never expected anything like this to happen in American Fork, at the Olive Garden on a Sunday night.
“Oh, we got out of the restaurant and just, my mom and I, we started bawling. That could’ve turned into something really bad, really quick," she said.
Since the man was taken to a mental health facility, police are not releasing his name.
FOX 13 News also reached out to Olive Garden for comment, but we have not heard back.
