A jury found that a man who shot and killed another at a Shake Shack restaurant near the University of Cincinnatiacted in self-defense.
The jury acquitted 56-year-old Antwoine McCants on all counts Sept. 25 at the conclusion of a five-day trial in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.
He faced murder and felonious assault charges in the June 2025 killing of Christopher Stallworth, 41, in what prosecutors described as a "misunderstanding" over a parking spot.
Shooting at Clifton Heights Shake Shack caught on camera
Prosecutors argued that McCants shot Stallworth inside the restaurant without ever seeing a gun. The two men were talking about an encounter that happened on the street when McCants aimed a gun at Stallworth and pulled the trigger, they said.
Prosecutors added that Stallworth started to back away
with his hands in his pockets as McCants pulled the gun.
The gun didn't go off because there wasn't a round in the chamber, so McCants racked it and fired, striking Stallworth in the chest, prosecutors said. Stallworth staggered outside onto the restaurant's patio and collapsed in the bushes. He died at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
The shooting was captured on surveillance cameras inside the restaurant.
Attorney says McCants shot man who was 'intending to retaliate'
McCants' attorneys offered a different account of what happened that night at the Calhoun Street restaurant.
McCants and his wife were exploring the city driving their three-wheeled motorcycles when they came upon the Shake Shack, Lindsay Arway, one of McCants' attorneys, said earlier in the trial. Neither of them had been to the restaurant, so they decided to stop and try it.
As the couple stopped to park on the street, Arway said, they encountered Stallworth and his fiancée driving at what they perceived to be a "high rate of speed." Worried about a collision, McCants' wife shouted, "Slow down."
Arway said the couple went into the restaurant and placed their order when Stallworth followed them inside "intending to retaliate" against McCants for what happened on the street.
Stallworth stalked McCants in the restaurant and sat across from McCants while talking on the phone, she added, telling someone to "get on down" to Shake Shack because a "dude with a gun threatened my girl."
McCants pulled a gun and opened fire after Stallworth approached, Arway said, fearing for his safety seeing that Stallworth was pulling something from his right front pocket. McCants' attorneys said in a court filing the same pocket contained a gun.
Jury votes to acquit after witness recants story
Atiya Muhammadel, Stallworth's fiancée and a key witness in the case, initially told police that she was armed and pulled out a gun on the night of the shooting. However, prosecutors said she told officers a different story at the start of trial, saying Stallworth brought her gun into the restaurant but never pulled it out.
Muhammadel said in court that she didn't know Stallworth was carrying the gun until it fell out of his pocket as he collapsed outside the restaurant. She added that she picked the weapon up to return fire on McCants, who had already left the restaurant.
McCants' attorneys said that Muhammadel removed the gun from Stallworth's pocket because he was on parole. Prosecutors argued there's no evidence she tried to hide the gun and police later found it on the restaurant's patio.
The jury ultimately sided with McCants, finding he was justified in using lethal force.
"Antwoine never wavered that he was acting in self-defense," Arway said in a statement, "and we are grateful for the efforts and consideration of the jury in reaching a not guilty verdict."
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Shake Shack killing after 'misunderstanding' was self-defense, jury finds
