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The sign on the Burger King on East Patrick Street offers a simple memorial from current employees to their departed co-worker: "We will miss you Patty."

Jacinta Ayala, a 32-year-old employee of the restaurant who was killed Friday morning during an attempted robbery, was known to her co-workers as "Patty," according to Ken Clarke, a district manager for Burger King. He said she is remembered by co-workers as a "very dedicated" employee.

"She was a quiet person when she started," Clarke said. "Basically over time she developed into a great employee, which we kept promoting. She became an assistant manager with us. She did an outstanding job — very dedicated. I can't even recall if she ever called off in eight years."

Clarke, who worked with Ayala during the entirety of her eight years with the restaurant, said she helped keep the store's employees in a good mood while she was working.

"She was just a very fine person," he said. "She was kind hearted; she kept the mood light in the store. I can't even recall her ever being mad at anybody or anything."

Clarke said the store's employees had a small vigil for Ayala on Friday evening as a way of remembering the attitude she brought to the restaurant. Burger King resumed normal operations on Saturday.

"She's going to be missed a lot," Clarke said. "It showed the night that everybody came to the store. It could have been very easy for us to break down as a team, but we didn't and I think that's part of what Patty brought to us."

Lt. Clark Pennington, a spokesman for Frederick Police Department, said investigators think the death was the result of a robbery, and that Ayala was a mother, but could not release how many children she had.

Police list Ayala's home address in the 900 block of Liberty Road in Frederick. The phone number for her home is not listed.

Pennington said police responded to the fast-food restaurant, 1302 E. Patrick St., at 6 a.m. Friday and found employees performing CPR on Ayala. She was unresponsive and suffering from an apparent single gunshot wound.

Anyone with information about the crime is asked to call Det. Garcia of the Frederick Police Department at 301-600-1247, the department's tip line at 301-600-8477 or email fpdcrimetip@frederick

mdpolice.org.

No arrests have been as of Wednesday morning; the investigation is ongoing.

tlaino@gazette.net