A Hollywood Christian honor graduate was shot dead Sunday during an early morning robbery of a Pembroke Pines Pizza Hut – a murder police say was coldly carried out by a fellow Pizza Hut worker, who has been arrested.

The shift manager of the restaurant, at 2040 N. University Drive, also was critically injured in the 1:20 a.m. fatal robbery.

Police say the two victims, Timothy Ahrens, 18, and Derek Jermaine Jackson, 20, had closed the restaurant for the night.

The motive for the deadly attack was money.

“It was robbery – pure and simple,” Pembroke Pines police Commander John Nasta said.

Ahrens, a 1996 graduate of Hollywood Christian School, was found dead in the restaurant kitchen. He had been shot several times, police said.

Jackson, who worked as a shift manager for the restaurant, was found on the floor behind the counter. Jackson had been shot once in the head. He was in critical but stable condition late Sunday at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood.

Police say Jackson knew the man who shot him.

Clyde Preston, an employee of another Pizza Hut restaurant and a friend of Jackson’s, was charged Sunday evening with first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of robbery in the attack.

“We talked to him by phone at his parents’ house and convinced him that it was in his best interest to come in and talk to us,” Nasta said. “He came in.”

Police still were looking for Julian Aaron Jacobs, 22, of Miramar, another Pizza Hut employee who they say may have been with Preston during the robbery.

“We believe that he was there at the time of the incident,” Nasta said. “We just want to question him. We don’t know if he is hiding from the police or hiding from Preston.”

Nasta would not say whether Preston confessed to police. Neither Preston nor Jacobs have criminal records, Nasta said.

“That’s what is so surprising,” he said.

The restaurant closed its doorsto eat-in customers about 10 p.m. Saturday, but delivery service continued until 1 a.m. Preston apparently arrived shortly after the delivery service shut down, police said.

Nasta refused to say whether one of the employees let Preston into the restaurant but confirmed that the doors were locked hours before the shooting. Rob Doughty, vice president of public relations for Pizza Hut Inc. in Dallas, which owns this restaurant, said one of the employees may have violated a company policy that prohibits employees from allowing anyone but store employees in after business hours.

Neither Preston nor Jacobs worked at the University Drive store. Doughty said he didn’t know where they worked.

It was not known whether Jackson could identify Preston on Sunday. A family acquaintance said that Jackson could mumble words.

“He’s doing very well considering,” Nasta said. “He’s still alive.”

Jackson, who has a classic car club and owns a black 1985 Caprice Classic, is very popular and has lots of friends, the family acquaintance said.

“He loves hip-hop music and cars,” the friend said. “He’s a nice person. He’s got a lot of friends.”

Ahrens, of Pembroke Pines, also was popular at Hollywood Christian School, where he was “basically a straight-A student,” said his older brother, Vance Ahrens, of Melbourne. He also was treasurer of the senior class and a member of the student council.

Ahrens had earned a presidential scholarship to attend the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, where he planned to major in aerospace engineering, his brother said. He had worked at Pizza Hut for two years and was set to work in management at a Melbourne Pizza Hut.

“He liked the people he worked with,” Vance Ahrens said. “He liked going there.”

Vance Ahrens said his younger brother loved the Lord.

“That’s the only thing that keeps us going – his relationship with God,” he said. “I was devastated. In some ways, it hasn’t settled in yet.”