Male customer caught on video violently attacking female McDonald's employees
A male customer was arrested on battery charges in the assault of two female McDonald’s employees, grabbing one over the counter and kicking the other in the stomach.
In a spectator’s video taken on New Year’s Eve, a white customer yelled at black cashier Yasmine James inside a St. Petersburg, Fla., McDonald’s, reaching across the counter and grabbing her by the collar. She fought back, punching him on the arm and pulling his shirt.
Co-workers pulled them apart, and then someone who appears to be a manager calmly finished the attacker’s order. “And I want her ass fired right now,” said the man, identified by police as Daniel Willis Taylor, 40. When James said he was going to jail for assaulting her, the man shot back, “I was just asking you a f***ing question, bitch.”
Then to the manager, the man said, “You’re going to give me a goddamn refund.”
The other incident was only captured on store surveillance video and shows the man being escorted out of McDonald’s and kicking a black female employee, Tateona Bell, in the stomach while she stood near the door. A representative of the St. Petersburg Police Department tells Yahoo Lifestyle that the security tape is not being released at this stage of the investigation.
— Carl (@DemocracyOnEdge) January 2, 2019
Viewers said the manager should not have finished the man’s order. “Violent white man verbally & physically assaults a black female employee & manager’s response is to check his order?” tweeted activist Qasim Rashid. The male employees were also called out for not immediately protecting James or trying to subdue Taylor.
The manager’s response is symptomatic of why #BlackLivesMatter started. The woman was grabbed from over the counter by a violent White male & calling the cops was not the visible default response of her coworkers or her manager. Who was protecting her?
— Trisha’s View (@TheTrishaView) January 2, 2019
This happened at a McDonalds in St Petersburg Florida…A SWS assaulted a Black female employee, & she had to fight him off.
1. Why wasn't he made to leave the premises after the assault?
2. Why did that manager continue to take his order?
3. Why were the BM just standing around? pic.twitter.com/vQTmmZKJj2— Tariq Nasheed (@tariqnasheed) January 2, 2019
According to an arrest affidavit sent to Yahoo Lifestyle by the St. Petersburg Police Department, Taylor, a transient from Clearwater, Fla., was charged with two counts of simple battery, a misdemeanor.
No one picked up the phone at the McDonald’s on 4595 34th Street South when called for comment by Yahoo Lifestyle. And a representative of McDonald’s corporate office did not return Yahoo Lifestyle’s request for comment.
Records from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office show that Taylor is currently held in the Pinellas County Jail on a $1,000 bond.
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
Teacher’s lawsuit alleges students called her ‘Aunt Jemima’ and said food was for ‘whites only’
Man harasses department store employee for speaking Arabic: ‘Go back to where you came from’
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