A customer is accused of attacking a Los Angeles restaurant worker on Monday over an order that was taking too long.
The incident happened at the Wokcano eatery near Flower and 7th Streets when the customer asked to talk to the manager after he became impatient about his order, NBC Los Angeles reported on Wednesday.
Kevin Oxlaj said he and his fellow workers knew the food was taking a long time to come out and apologized. They also told him he was allowed to leave without paying.
“And then on his way out, he just started mumbling to my coworker that they’re not good people. They’re not people that know how to run a restaurant. That’s when I told him, ‘Hey, come on man. (The manager is) pregnant. Learn how to respect.’ When I told him that, he blew it,” Oxlaj added.
Video footage shows the moment the customer approached Oxlaj as he stood behind a counter and and allegedly punched him, per Fox 11:
“Then he told me, ‘Now you like the respect? Now you like the respect? I saw the anger in him when he was hitting me,” Oxlaj recalled.
The clip shows the suspect allegedly repeatedly hitting the restaurant worker until another customer intervened and pulled the suspect off of Oxlaj.
“And it was like four times that he apparently came back asking what time do I come off, where do I live, and all these other type of questions,” Oxlaj explained, adding that he felt like the man was trying to kill him and he is afraid he is still looking for him.
An image shows the suspect in the case as he stood inside the restaurant:
LA restaurant worker brutally attacked as he defended pregnant co-worker from customer upset over his food order https://t.co/CSiO7noqpK pic.twitter.com/wyIEv2jVqW
— New York Post (@nypost) May 23, 2024
According to Fox 11, someone called the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for help when the incident happened. However, the suspect was gone by the time officers made it to the scene. Now, officials are asking anyone with information about the suspect to call police.
“Please, help us put him behind bars because I don’t want him doing the same thing to anyone or any other person,” Oxlaj told NBC Los Angeles.