A pre-dawn robbery at a Baltimore McDonald's drive-thru that left a worker shot in the foot will cost the gunman the next three decades of his life, a city judge has decided.
On Tuesday, May 26, Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Michael A. DiPietro sentenced 27-year-old Angelo Jerome Riley Jr. to 30 years in prison for the armed holdup, ordering that the first five years be served without the possibility of parole.
What happened at the drive-thru
According to the Baltimore Police Department, officers responded around 3 a.m. on January 31, 2025, to reports of a shooting at the McDonald's in the 6000 block of Moravia Road. A 32-year-old female employee told investigators that a man walked up to the drive-thru window, pointed a handgun and demanded the cash register.
Police say the suspect fired a single shot that ricocheted and hit the employee in the foot, then took off with the cash register. It was a late-night order of pure chaos instead of burgers and fries.
How investigators built the case
Prosecutors said officers tracked the stolen register using its built-in GPS to the 2700 block of Greenmount Avenue, where nearby surveillance cameras recorded someone grabbing a large reflective box that matched the register. A witness later identified Riley from that footage, which led to his arrest, according to Baltimore Witness.
A jury convicted Riley after a February 26 trial on charges that included first-degree assault, use of a firearm in a felony violent crime, possessing and discharging a handgun, and armed robbery. Baltimore Witness reports that Riley was represented at trial by attorney John Deros.
What the law says
Under Maryland law, using a firearm while committing a felony is its own crime and comes with a mandatory minimum of five years in prison that is typically stacked on top of the main sentence. That requirement is laid out in Criminal Law Section 4-204, as summarized by FindLaw, and helps explain why prosecutors often seek long, consecutive sentences in gun cases.
Local context
Fast-food drive-thru violence has brought serious prison time elsewhere in the region too. Prosecutors in Anne Arundel County won convictions earlier this year in a 2022 McDonald's drive-thru shooting that killed an employee, according to CBS Baltimore. In Riley's case, investigators again leaned heavily on surveillance images and witness identifications.
Police are still asking anyone with information about the Moravia Road robbery to contact Northeast District detectives at 410-396-2433 or Metro Crime Stoppers. The department's advisory lists the same contact information. The McDonald's employee was treated at the scene for the gunshot wound to her foot, according to the Baltimore Police Department.
