A drive-thru disagreement over a food order lasted only minutes. Its consequences stretched for more than two years.
Anitra West, 48, was working at a Church’s Chicken in Memphis when an encounter with customer Monica Williams spilled beyond the drive-thru window in July 2024. Williams left the restaurant, then came back.
West was outside when Williams shot her.
On Friday, Williams pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office announced. She received an effective 30-year sentence.
The Return
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The shooting happened July 8, 2024, at the Church’s Chicken on Park Avenue in Memphis’ Orange Mound neighborhood.
The district attorney’s office said Williams and West had an exchange involving a food order while Williams was in the drive-thru. Williams drove away before later returning and shooting West outside the restaurant.
West was taken to a hospital, where she died.
Reporting from Action News 5 on the arrest affidavit provided a more detailed account of what happened before and after that return trip.
A coworker told police the dispute began over payment for food. After Williams drove away, West went outside because she was upset.
West was also talking to a friend through an earpiece. That friend told police she heard the drive-thru argument and later heard West say that the same customer had returned to the parking lot.
A gunshot followed.
A Camera Trail
Police were dispatched to the restaurant shortly after 9 p.m. and found West suffering from a gunshot wound outside, according to Action News 5’s account of the affidavit.
The restaurant’s surveillance system had captured the incident.
Police subsequently released images of the suspected shooter and a teal SUV. Those images helped generate another break in the case.
A woman who knew Williams contacted police after seeing news coverage the following morning, the affidavit said.
She told police that she and her 10-year-old son had been riding with Williams when they went to Church’s Chicken the night before. She described an increasingly tense exchange at the restaurant but said Williams dropped them off before the shooting.
The witness said Williams left again after dropping them off, telling her she was going to get chips to go with their dinner.
Williams returned later that night, packed an overnight bag and left without her vehicle, according to the affidavit account.
After the witness recognized Williams in images shown on the news, she called police. Officers later found Williams’ vehicle outside the witness’s home and seized it as evidence.
The Case Changed
Williams was arrested July 15, 2024.
At that stage, she was facing first-degree murder. Action News 5 reported the following month that a Shelby County grand jury had indicted her in West’s killing and that she remained jailed without bond.
The case ultimately ended with Williams admitting to a different homicide offense.
The district attorney’s office said Williams pleaded guilty to second-degree murder as well as possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. The office described the resulting 30 years as her “effective sentence.”
Action News 5 has also reported from Shelby County court records that Williams had a prior aggravated-assault conviction dating to 2009 and served three years in prison.
What She Left
West left behind a 12-year-old daughter.
Her ex-husband and high school sweetheart, Loranzo West, spoke about her shortly after the killing.
“I’m a better man because of her,” he told Action News 5. “That’s what will be missed the most, because everywhere she went, she impacted everybody.”
More than two years after West was killed outside the restaurant where she worked, the district attorney’s office announced that Williams’ case had ended with the guilty pleas and a 30-year sentence.