- California authorities have arrested a man who punched a fast-food employee, taking out her eye.
- Isaac White-Carter faces felony charges of mayhem and aggravated assault causing great bodily injury.
Police in Antioch, California, have arrested a man accused of punching a fast-food employee in the face, causing her to lose her right eye, after she defended a young boy from being bullied.
Isaac White-Carter, 20, was arrested on Monday and faces felony charges of mayhem and aggravated assault causing great bodily injury, the Antioch Police Department said in a statement. It's unclear whether White-Carter has made a plea or retained an attorney.
Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe said in a video statement that 19-year-old Habit Burger employee Bianca Palomera had been "viciously assaulted" on November 12 and that White-Carter landed the blow that eventually caused Palomera to lose her eye.
Palomera said in her Fox affiliate interview that the incident began when she saw a man enter the Habit Burger and immediately begin bullying the boy. She intervened, and surveillance footage obtained from the fast food restaurant showed the assailant punching Palomera at least twice.
"I just remember grabbing my eye — I thought I was crying at first," Palomera told local Fox affiliate KTVU FOX. "But then after, I saw I had blood dripping down my shirt and down my cheek."
The alleged assault on Palomera is just the latest in a series of recent attacks against fast-food workers nationwide. A number of news stories in recent months have documented incidents in which employees — often young people — have been verbally and physically abused, and even threatened with weapons. Often, the attacks stemmed from disputes over fast-food orders.
In Antioch, the same city Palomera was attacked in, a 16-year-old Jack in the Box employee was recently slammed to the ground and stomped on by a couple who complained about a hair in their food. Over the summer, three customers trashed a Manhattan restaurant, threw glass bottles and a metal stool at employees, and even threatened one worker with a stun gun.
In June, two women complaining about a problem with their order began repeatedly punching a Steak n' Shake worker in Tampa, Florida. And a 17-year-old Burger King employee in Wyoming, Michigan, was punched, kicked, and body-slammed by a customer who was furious over his soda cup being overfilled.
In Palomera's case, Thorpe said the Antioch Police Department's Special Operations Unit and the US Marshals had been searching for White-Carter for weeks before finally arresting arresting him on December 5.
"Bianca was doing nothing more than standing up for a kid who had special needs," Thorpe said. "And today, she only has one eye. In my book, Bianca is a hero."
Thorpe said he will be bestowing a key to the city to Palomera in a ceremony on December 13.