A worker said she was trying to keep a driver at the restaurant until police arrived when another customer entered the situation.
MARANA, Ariz. — An In-N-Out employee who found a driver asleep in a backed-up drive-thru was trying to keep him at the restaurant until police could respond when another customer stepped into the encounter, warned her to move away and later fired three shots toward the driver’s vehicle, investigators say.
The employee’s account provides a crucial link between the initial concern about the stopped driver and the violence that followed Sept. 28 at the restaurant on North Cortaro Road. According to local reporting based on an interim complaint, the worker approached the vehicle after it remained stationary for an extended period and discovered the driver asleep. Charles Whipple, 55, was waiting about two vehicles back. He eventually left his position and became involved as workers were attempting to deal with the driver.
Whipple later told police that he believed he could smell alcohol coming from the man or his vehicle, the reported complaint says. He also recalled hearing a restaurant employee say something like “we can’t let him leave,” apparently referring to the driver. The employee told investigators she was trying to stall the man so police could be called. The reviewed reports do not say the worker requested armed intervention, asked Whipple to detain the driver or told him to use force. The allegation instead rests on what police say Whipple did as the driver began leaving.
Before the shots, the employee described another exchange that investigators included in the court account. She said Whipple came toward her and told her to back away because he did not want her to get hurt. The Arizona Daily Star reported that the complaint also said Whipple unzipped a bag he was carrying. Those details, together with surveillance footage, became part of the police reconstruction of the moments before the driver moved across the parking lot and gunfire began.
Police had already been summoned. The Marana Police Department said officers were dispatched to the In-N-Out at 8180 N. Cortaro Road at about 2:52 p.m. for a welfare check. The call reflected concern about the man who had been stopped in the drive-thru. In an unusual coincidence, other officers were nearby investigating an unrelated incident. Those officers heard multiple gunshots coming from the direction of the restaurant and headed there, turning what had started as a welfare response into an immediate shooting call.
Investigators say the driver had begun moving again by then. Police said Whipple approached him and that the driver proceeded forward through the drive-thru before stopping again. Whipple crossed the parking lot toward the end of the lane. As the vehicle began traveling through the parking lot, police say Whipple fired three times toward the driver’s side window. One round, or a fragment from a round, struck the man.
The driver was not reported to have accelerated toward Whipple. Instead, investigators reviewing surveillance footage said Whipple was not directly in the vehicle’s path, the vehicle was moving slowly and he was not in immediate danger when the shots were fired, according to local coverage of the complaint. Those findings are among the facts authorities have cited as Whipple faces accusations of attempted second-degree homicide and endangerment. The criminal allegations remain unproven.
The driver stopped after being hit. Police said Whipple approached the vehicle with the gun, ordered the wounded man to get out and directed him to the ground. The victim complied and remained there until officers arrived. When police reached the restaurant, they said they saw Whipple pointing a firearm at the man, who was lying near his vehicle. Officers detained Whipple without incident and began providing first aid.
The injured driver was taken to a local hospital with wounds that authorities said were not life-threatening. His identity was not released in the sources reviewed. Police also have not publicly established in those reports that he was intoxicated. Whipple’s statement that he smelled alcohol is an allegation attributed to Whipple, and concern that the driver might have been impaired was part of the reason employees wanted police involved. It is not the same as a confirmed finding that the man had committed an alcohol-related offense.
The distinction matters because the phrase Whipple said he overheard could otherwise be read without its surrounding context. According to the reported employee account, “we can’t let him leave” reflected an effort to keep the driver there until law enforcement arrived. Police have not said that restaurant workers were attempting to make a formal arrest or that they authorized Whipple to act on their behalf. The legal case against Whipple concerns his own alleged actions after he became involved.
Other customers were nearby throughout the encounter. Arizona’s Family reported that investigators said the restaurant patio was occupied and that small children were among those present. Police did not report that another customer or employee was struck by the three rounds. Whipple was nevertheless booked on an endangerment count in addition to the attempted homicide allegation, reflecting authorities’ claim that the shooting created danger beyond the injury to the driver.
The Police Department said witness interviews and surveillance footage were used to establish the sequence. Video evidence is particularly important in a case where multiple people appear to have perceived different risks at different moments. The employee was dealing with a sleeping driver and trying to involve police. Whipple said he believed alcohol was involved. Investigators, meanwhile, later assessed where Whipple stood, how fast the vehicle was moving and whether the car posed an immediate danger to him at the moment shots were fired.
At his first court appearance, Whipple identified himself as a Navy veteran and former police officer, according to local television coverage. A judge set his bond at $150,000. The Arizona Daily Star reported that a preliminary hearing was tentatively planned for Oct. 9. The reviewed sources did not provide a later case disposition through Nov. 10. His statements about his military and law-enforcement background are biographical claims reported from the hearing and do not establish a defense to the new accusations.
Police have released fewer details about the victim. His name remains absent from the reports reviewed, as does a detailed account from him about why he was asleep in the drive-thru or what he saw before the shots. Authorities also have not said in those reports whether he faced any separate citation after receiving medical treatment. Those unresolved questions should not be filled with assumptions based on Whipple’s stated belief that he smelled alcohol.
The employee’s reported effort to wait for police therefore remains one of the most important pieces of context. Officers were already coming to conduct a welfare check, and nearby officers reached the restaurant within moments of the shooting. Their account says they found the victim wounded on the ground and Whipple armed beside him. Investigators then used the restaurant’s video and witness statements to reconstruct the earlier stages of the encounter.
For the restaurant employees, the encounter had started with an effort to keep a sleeping driver at the location until officers arrived. Investigators say the circumstances changed when Whipple intervened and gunfire followed. Public reporting reviewed through Nov. 10 does not show a final adjudication of the charges, while key details about the driver’s condition before the confrontation remain unconfirmed.
Author note: Last updated Nov. 10, 2026.