Two Coquette employees who were witnesses to Friday's deadly shooting have identified the gunman believed to be responsible for the death of another employee.
George Colom, who is the executive chef at the French restaurant Coquette, is accused of entering the restaurant before 11 a.m. Friday at 4351 The Circle at North Hills St. and fatally shooting 26-year-old Jonathan Schaffer.
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Schaffer worked at the restaurant.
Colom also shot 24-year-old Jonathan Aguilar, one of the employees that WRAL News spoke to on Friday. Aguilar's injuries are non-life-threatening.
Aguilar showed WRAL News his injuries saying, "There's a bullet still lodged in my hand here."
Colom then turned the gun on himself. He is critically injured.
Raleigh police chief Estella Patterson said all shots were fired inside Coquette. The shooting appeared to stem from a dispute between parties, and there is no threat to the public, Patterson said.
Who is the suspected North Hills shooter?
Urban Food Group, which owns Coquette, listed Colom as the restaurant’s executive chef on its website. Colom’s name has since been removed from the site.
WRAL News tried reaching out to Urban Food Group's owners on Friday to ask about the shooting, but did not hear back. Urban Food Group is the parent company of Coquette.
Colom has a previous criminal history.
On Tuesday in Orange County, Colom pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, which is a misdemeanor stemming from a September 2024 crash. He was ordered to pay $193 in court costs.
Before moving to North Carolina, Colom was in federal prison after he was convicted in January 2011 of possessing a stolen firearm in New Mexico. He was sentenced to three years and four months in prison. His initial charges were from 2010.
According to Colom’s LinkedIn profile, not long after his release, he returned to North Carolina and started working in the restaurant business, first in the Wilmington area. He came to the Triangle area around 2017, the LinkedIn profile states.
Colom’s Facebook page is filled with photos of guns with evidence tags from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Colom’s social media pages are also filled with photos of kitchen creations over the years.
It appears he learned his craft before his time in prison – attending culinary classes at Central New Mexico Community College, before moving back to North Carolina.
State court records show he’s originally from Hubert, in Onslow County, near the coast. Those cases include minor drug charges.