Irene Jiang / Business Insider
- Popeyes officially relaunched its wildly popular chicken sandwich on November 3 after selling out of the menu item in August.
- The second iteration of the sandwich has been linked to various reports of violence, many stemming from agitated customers who want to get their hands on the coveted menu item.
- Police confirmed that a deadly shooting in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on November 4 was linked to the return of the chicken sandwich.
- "There is no reason for someone to lose their life on a Monday night in a parking lot," Popeyes said in a statement. "Our thoughts are with the victim's family and friends and we are fully cooperating with local authorities."
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
The Popeyes chicken sandwich is back, and the second iteration of the famed menu has been as wild - if not more - than its first go-around.
Foot traffic to stores surpassed the peak traffic during the original launch of the sandwich, according to foot-traffic tracker Placer.ai.
Since the sandwich relaunched on November 3, there have been various reports of customers resorting to extreme measures to get one of the sandwiches.
"It is as crazy as last time if not more," said a shift leader in a Texas Popeyes who worked through the first iteration of the Chicken Sandwich Wars. He said his location sold over 2,000 sandwiches the first night of the relaunch.
Popeyes said that some locations experienced drive-thru lines down the street and in-store lines that went out the front door.
But in some cases, the hype has become dangerous. A Popeyes employee was arrested on Friday after a viral video showed an employee body-slamming a woman outside a Tennessee restaurant, Fox reported.
A deadly shooting in Oxon Hill, Maryland the day after the sandwich's relaunch was linked to to the return of the menu item, police confirmed. One man fatally stabbed the other while waiting in line for a Popeyes chicken sandwich after an argument. Jennifer Donelan, a spokeswoman for the Prince George's County Police Department, said that the disagreement was apparently sparked when one person cut in front of the other in line.
From a fatal stabbing to a report of a brawl between an employee and a customer, here are all the incidents connected to the Popeyes chicken sandwich so far.