Heroes don’t only exist in the realm of movies and stories – they walk among us every day. Some people never realize they are heroes until they are thrown into a situation. When this woman was put in a compromising place, she decided to do the right thing. You’ll never guess what an impact she had.
Delonda Walker is the general manager of Ybor City’s McDonald’s. She is a good employee, but recently she has gone above and beyond to prove herself a good person as well. It all started when a coworker handed her a fast-food bag.
Delonda was working her shift as manager when a fellow employee asked her to hold onto the bag and left the restaurant. This man had been employed for a couple months under the name Trai. He had mentioned that he planned to leave the state of Florida. Delonda had a bad feeling about this, so she followed her intuition.
She had a hunch that something wasn’t right about the bag, so she decided to open it. Delonda couldn’t believe what she saw: a semiautomatic pistol resting inside!
The manager was horrified, but she had to think quick. Luckily, there was a cop in the restaurant. He was filling out paperwork when she handed him the gun. Delonda had no way of knowing how important this action really was.
The officer reported the situation. Immediately a team of police arrived at the scene. This was the evidence they had been searching for.
The man who went by the name Trai was actually Howell Emanual Donaldson III, and he was suspected of committing a series of killings that terrorized Seminole Heights for 51 days. Thanks to Delonda’s tip, the police had enough evidence to bring him in for questioning. Howell was later arrested and faces charges of the murder of Benjamin Mitchell, 22; Monica Hoffa, 32; Anthony Naiboa, 19; and Robert Felton, 60.
Because of her immense help in this volatile case, Delonda is being offered a reward. The authorities and individual donors raised $110,000 as a reward for any tip that led to the shooter’s arrest. The donors included the families of the victims, and they were grateful to Delonda for her bravery.
Though there was some controversy about whether or not the manager would receive the full amount of the reward, Delonda has been promised that she will receive every last penny. “Today,” the mayor shared with ABC News, “we are a safer community because Miss Walker did the right thing.”
Of course the money is a huge help, but it wasn’t this hero’s primary reason for saving the day. “Receiving a reward never entered my mind,” she wrote in a letter to the mayor. “I went to work on Tuesday intending to serve customers and do my job. The day turned out very differently. When confronted with this situation, I wanted to do the right thing and I reached out to a nearby police officer.”
The world would be a lot safer if it were filled with people like Delonda. When it came down to it, this woman proved herself to be a hero. Her story inspires us all to want to do the right thing.
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