A 28-year-old former Jack in the Box employee has pleaded guilty to a federal firearm charge after a customer service dispute at a South St. Louis drive-thru erupted into a shootout that left 13 spent casings scattered outside the restaurant. Tony Robinson admitted to firing his Glock .45-caliber pistol at a customer following an argument at the drive-thru window on December 17, 2025, at the Jack in the Box on the 2100 block of South Grand Boulevard in the Shaw neighborhood.
Robinson worked the drive-thru window at the restaurant and got into an argument with a customer, according to prosecutors cited by FOX 2. A manager stepped in to try to defuse the confrontation, but Robinson put down his headset and walked away from the drive-thru station. The customer then stood outside the restaurant, looking through a dining room window, before backing away, pulling out a gun, and opening fire, per the outlet's account of the case.
Robinson confronted the customer outside with his hand in his pocket before retreating back into the restaurant, and he returned fire once shooting started, exchanging shots with the customer. Federal prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri say investigators recovered 13 spent cartridge casings at the scene — four .45-caliber casings matching Robinson's weapon and nine 9mm casings — along with bullet holes in the customer's vehicle windshield and hood and in the restaurant's window. Robinson fired through the restaurant windows during the exchange, and the customer ultimately ran from the scene.
A Cover-Up That Didn't Hold Up
After the shooting, Robinson hid his gun in a stairwell at a nearby church, then lied to St. Louis police, telling them he had thrown the weapon in a sewer. Officers with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department eventually recovered the firearm. The case was investigated jointly by St. Louis police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Szczucinski assigned to prosecute the federal firearm charge, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The customer told investigators he acted in self-defense during the confrontation, court records show. That claim, laid out in official statements relayed in court filings, helps explain why federal prosecutors zeroed in on Robinson's status as a felon barred from possessing a firearm rather than pursuing separate state assault charges tied to the exchange of gunfire itself.
Federal Charge Carries Steeper Penalty Than It Once Did
Robinson appeared in U.S. District Court in St. Louis and pleaded guilty to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, per prosecutors. He now faces up to 15 years in federal prison, and is scheduled to be sentenced on November 19, 2026.
That 15-year ceiling is higher than it would have been just a few years ago. The statutory maximum for federal felon-in-possession charges under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) rose from 10 years to 15 years in June 2022 after Congress passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, according to LGR Law LLC. Federal authorities brought the charge against Robinson under Project Safe Neighborhoods, a Department of Justice initiative that pairs federal, state, and local agencies to target violent crime, the U.S. Attorney's Office says. Under federal sentencing guidelines, judges calculate base offense levels and criminal history categories before settling on an actual sentence, meaning the final term Robinson receives could land well below that statutory maximum unless aggravating factors apply, per Deandra Grant Law.
A Drive-Thru With a History, on a Corridor Under Scrutiny
This is not the first violent incident tied to this particular Jack in the Box location. In May 2020, a driver was robbed at gunpoint in the same restaurant's drive-thru lane, according to KSDK. Hoodline has also covered a nearby fast-food meltdown in February involving 29 calls to 911 after a refund dispute at a South St. Louis Jack in the Box, and reported on a June police standoff that shut down the 2100 block of South Grand Boulevard near Russell Avenue and left three officers injured.
The shooting also fits a troubling national pattern for fast-food and retail workers. A May 2026 study by the National Council on Compensation Insurance, drawing on Bureau of Labor Statistics data, found that workplace homicides across private industry average 350 to 400 cases a year, with fast-food and retail settings consistently among the highest-risk job environments. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has separately warned that late-night and drive-thru fast-food operations carry elevated risks of violent confrontation because of easy access to cash, thin overnight staffing, and isolated customer interactions.
Robinson's sentencing next November will determine how much prison time he ultimately serves for the felony gun charge, though the customer's self-defense claim and the exact circumstances that touched off the argument remain part of the broader record in a case that started as a routine complaint at a drive-thru window and ended in a hail of gunfire on one of South St. Louis's busiest commercial strips.
