Workers Attacked by Coworker’s Husband, Customers, Others

High Point, NC (WorkersCompensation.com) – Workers continue to face attacks in the new year, this week from customers and a coworker’s husband.

In High Point, N.C., police have charged a pastor in an attack on a McDonald’s worker. The incident happened on Thursday, when police were called to the fast food restaurant for an assault. A manager in training there told police she had called her husband to ask for help after the workers in the store were “disrespecting” her.

When the husband arrived, witnesses told police, he walked around the counter and put his hands on the neck of one of the cooks, then pushed it toward the deep fryer while punching the cook in the face. Witnesses said the man – a pastor at Elevated Life International Ministries – didn’t stop hitting the cook until several people pulled him away from the employee.

The victim was treated by emergency medical technicians for large contusions to his face, and scratches to his neck. Police said video of the attack led them to arrest the pastor, Dwayne Waden, and charge him with simple assault. He was later released on a $1,000 bond.

In Eugene, Ore., police are looking for a man who stabbed an employee who tried to stop him from shoplifting.

On Jan. 4, Eugene Police Department officials said the man entered a 7-Eleven store shortly after 6 a.m., selected some items, and then got into an argument with the store clerk. When the argument escalated, the suspect stabbed the employee and fled without paying for the items. Police said the store employee was transported to a nearby hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

In Chico, Calif., a Taco Bell employee was sent to the hospital after being stabbed by a customer.

Officials said the employee was working at the Taco Bell at Chico Marketplace when a customer stabbed him in the arm. Officials said they didn’t have a motive for the attack at the time of the arrest in mid-December. Taco Bell closed the facility for the afternoon.

Witnesses said the suspect tried to get away from police and stabbed the door with a knife in his attempt to flee, but he was captured and arrested at the restaurant by police.

William Spaletta, a witness to the incident, said he and his wife were standing in line at the restaurant when the attack happened.

“He was seated and jumped up and pulled a knife out and stabbed the guy on the arm,” Spaletta said. “An employee yelled at us to go outside.”

Just before New Year’s Eve, police were on the lookout for a suspect in the stabbing of a 70-year-old store owner.

Officials said that beauty supply store owner Kang Hwan Yoo was stabbed multiple times when his store was robbed. Police said they believed the same individual was responsible for another two or three robberies on the same block. Yoo’s business was the third business in a row to be targeted by the suspect.

The robberies and the lack of an arrest led Korean business and community leaders to believe that the businesses were being targeted because of the owner’s race.

"It sends a terrible message that there is some kind of open season on immigrant entrepreneurs and small business owners like Mr. Yoo," New York State Sen. John Liu said during a rally on Dec. 16.

While the robbery was the third on that block, it was the only one that turned violent, officials said.

In Starkville, Miss., a man was arrested for stabbing a Mississippi State University employee.

On Dec. 11, police responded to Herbert Hall on campus to the report of a stabbing. Gavin Suddeth, 38, of Starkville, was arrested for the incident. The university described the victim’s injuries as non-life-threatening.

Police said the victim was sitting inside a parked vehicle on campus with four of their children when Suddeth stabbed them. University officials said Suddeth and the victim knew each other. Suddeth was charged with aggravated domestic assault and child endangerment.

And in Minneapolis, police arrested a man who fatally stabbing a 66-year-old grocery store clerk with a golf club.

On Dec. 8, police were called to the Oak Grove Grocery for a report of a stabbing. Upon arrival, they found 66-yeaar-old Robert Skafte behind the counter, impaled by a golf club. Officials quickly identified a 44-year-old suspect.

Police allege the suspect took a number of items to the counter for purchase before attacking Skafte.

"It appears he then went behind the counter and then began to assault and bludgeon the individual behind the counter in a very grotesque way," Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said at a press briefing.

Skafte was found with the golf club in his abdomen and the broken-off head lying nearby. Medics attended to Skafte at the scene, but he lost consciousness. Skafte was taken to a nearby hospital where he later died.

Officials did not immediately identify a motive in Skafte’s death. A witness said he ran into the store and found Skafte partly on his knees and still conscious. The witness said Skafte told him someone who "was in there earlier acting crazy came back and attacked him.”

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