Charleston Hostage Situation Over; Gunman Wounded, 1 Victim Dead

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The mayor says a hostage situation in a Charleston, South Carolina, restaurant has ended with the gunman being shot by police.

Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said a disgruntled restaurant employee shot one person, before taking hostages. The owner of the restaurant says he's been told the man is a dishwasher who was angry with and shot a male chef.

Officers were able to get the injured man out of the restaurant, but Tecklenburg said the restaurant employee has died.

Police said all the hostages at Virginia's restaurant were rescued safely, but they didn't say how many there were.

Tecklenburg says the man who took the hostages is in critical condition.

Interim Charleston Police Chief Jerome Taylor says the restaurant on tourist-heavy King Street was packed at lunchtime and his officers helped rescue the wounded man and a number of diners.

Tom and Patsy Plant told The Post and Courier of Charleston they were eating at Virginia's on King restaurant and saw a man come out of the kitchen with a gun in his hand who said, "There's a new boss in town."

The man looked like "an ordinary grandpa, but he had a crazy look," the couple said. They were able to escape out a back door.

Charleston Police sent SWAT teams and a bomb disposal unit to the area.

The site is a few blocks away from Emanuel AME church, where nine black members of a church were killed by a white man during a June 2015 Bible study. Dylann Roof was sentenced to death in the case.

Follow @CBSBaltimore on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on Facebook