Arby’s Ripper Told Mom, ‘I Did A Bad Thing:' Prosecutor

HICKORY HILLS, IL -- Kristina and Daniel Price gripped each other’s hands during a bond hearing Saturday afternoon at the Leighton Criminal Courts Building, as they listened to a Cook County prosecutor describe their brother Johnny’s last moments of life. John Price, 35, was stabbed to death last week while working the night shift at Arby’s in Hickory Hills. The man accused of his murder, Irvin Thomas, 26, is a fellow employee.

Sometime around 10 p.m. Sept. 20, the prosecutor said that Price, a popular night manager of Arby's at 95th Street and Roberts Road, was working the night shift with Thomas. According to the charges, Thomas went into the restaurant’s kitchen area and grabbed a knife. Thomas reportedly walked to the front of the restaurant where Price was working and began stabbing him in the torso. A customer waiting to be served at the drive-through window saw Thomas slashing Price, the prosecutor said. The customer drove to a safe spot and called police.

The entire incident was captured on the restaurant’s interior security cameras, the prosecutor said. As Thomas repeatedly stabbed Price, he allegedly picked his boss up by the back of his uniform and threw Price out of the restaurant’s back door. Price walked a few steps but collapsed, calling for help. His ear had been sliced off among other multiple stab wounds. When Hickory Hills police officers arrived Price was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

The prosecutor said surveillance cameras from nearby businesses in the shopping center where the Arby's restaurant is located, captured Thomas wiping the bloody knife on his uniform top. After he wiped off the knife, Thomas took off his shirt and tossed it and the knife into the Dumpster behind Arby’s. Thomas walked home and allegedly told his mother, “I did a bad thing." Hickory Hills police said that Thomas had blood on his shoes when they went to arrest him. The charges made no mention if there had been an argument or confrontation that led to alleged stabbing.

Before the prosecutor began reading the charges, he submitted a petition to Cook County Judge John Fitzgerald Lyke Jr., indicating that the state would be asking for Thomas to be held without bail. Lyke read the petition. After hearing the allegations against Thomas, the judge granted the prosecutor's request.

“I find him to be a real and present threat to the community,” Lyke said, denying bail.

Outside, the rest of Price’s family, his mother, another sister, aunt and uncles, waited three hours in the sweltering heat in front of the courthouse. Only two “visitors” were allowed into the courtroom for each defendant, part of a new weekend policy to prevent visitors from roaming the closed court building.

“Johnny gave the gentleman rides home after work all the time because he didn’t have a car,” said Dawn Price, who could not bring herself to say her brother’s accused killer’s name. “My brother gave him a handheld gaming device so [Thomas] would have something to do.”

Dawn Price said when she went to pick up her brother’s belongings at the Hickory Hills police station, she found her brother’s PSP charger but not his game system.”

“My brother was generous,” she said.

Price’s family said they know little about what happened to Johnny, except that it was a gruesome, bloody crime scene inside Arby's, where Price had worked the past eight years. They've been told by police that Thomas allegedly made a threat against Price on Facebook.

“He bled out in the lot,” Dawn said. “He tried to make it to the Jewel to get help but he didn’t make it.”

His sister said that when they went to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office to identify her brother’s body, his eyes were still open. The family is comforted and grateful for the support they’ve received from the community. An online fundraising campaign has raised over $8,000 to help cover funeral costs. Some of the donations came from people they know, an equal number of donations came from strangers.

“I used to have four children,” Price’s mother Doreen wept. “Johnny, Krissy, Dawn and Danny.”

“You still have four children, mom,” Dawn said. “Johnny will always be with us.”