Police have accused a North Carolina pastor of attacking a McDonald’s cook and trying to push him into a deep fryer.
Dwayne Waden, 57, was arrested on Thursday and charged with assault after police were called to a McDonald’s branch on S Main Street in High Point, North Carolina.
Waden is a pastor at the Elevated Life International Ministries and works as a semi truck driver, according to his Facebook page.
He turned up at the fast-food restaurant to help his wife, Latoya Gladney, who is a manager-in-training at the branch, according to police investigation records seen by Business Insider.
Gladney, 44, had called her husband to help handle employees who she told police were “disrespecting” her.
On entering the restaurant, police say Waden walked straight around the counter and launched an assault on a 34-year-old cook.
“The offender came into the McDonald’s on S Main Street, walked around the counter and placed his hands around the neck of the victim pushing his head toward the deep fryer,” the police investigation found.
Waden is then accused of punching the cook several times, leaving him with scratches down his neck and “a large contusion” to his forehead and right eye.
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Waden did not stop the assault until several employees pulled him off of the victim and restrained him until police arrived, police said.
Emergency services were called to the scene, but the victim’s family took him to a hospital for treatment.
After viewing security camera footage of the incident, police arrested the pastor and charged him with assault.
A trial has been set for 22 January, and a US$1,000 bail bond has been set.
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McDonald’s has previously faced several lawsuits from employees over a failure to protect them from violence in the workplace.
The complaints include instances of customers pulling guns on workers, throwing items at workers, and physically attacking workers.
“The incidents described in this complaint are not random or unforeseeable,” the workers claimed in the 2019 suit. “Rather, they are part of a citywide and nationwide pattern at McDonald’s restaurants.”
McDonald’s did not immediately respond to a request for comment.