Waitress shot in head by boyfriend in Marion restaurant Monday

MARION, Ind. – A waitress remained in critical but stable condition Monday after being shot in the head over the weekend by her estranged boyfriend inside the restaurant where she worked, authorities said.\nThe man, Theron Lee Bailey, 49, then fled and at gunpoint forced a driver to take him to a relative’s home, where officers arrested him after he fired a shot into the ground, police said.\nBailey and his estranged girlfriend, Rita Sherron Underwood, were arguing Saturday night outside the Southside Diner, where she was a waitress, police said. They went inside, and after other workers ordered Bailey to leave, he pulled out a handgun and shot her in the head while a few customers were in the diner, police said.\nUnderwood was not working when the shooting occurred but had been earlier that day, Marion Police Detective Sgt. Del Garcia said. About four or five customers were inside, he said.\n“They were in a dispute over money that he wanted from her and she was reluctant to give,” city Police Chief David Gilbert said.\nUnderwood was in Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne on Monday, Garcia said.\nGrant County sheriff’s deputies found Bailey at the relative’s home after he called his mother, sheriff’s Sgt. Matt Swain said.\n“He told her, ‘I just shot Rita in the back of the head, and I’m going to kill myself,’” Swain said.\nBailey was being held without bond in the Grant County Jail on several preliminary charges, including attempted murder, kidnapping, criminal confinement, intimidation and pointing a loaded firearm.\nFred Spencer, the restaurant’s manager in the city midway between Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, said he was working at the time of the shooting but that Underwood was already wounded by the time he left his office.\n“She was a very good employee, conscientious all the time,” Spencer said. “I had no problem with her. She was a real good cook. I just liked her.”