COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News spoke to a pretzel shop employee after he was seen trading blows with a customer in a viral video.
This happened at the Auntie Anne’s restaurant in Cumberland mall in Cobb County.
Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell learned this all started because the restaurant ran out of something.
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It’s not what you’d expect to see in a food court at a mall in metro Atlanta.
“It was a typical day at work I had a customer come up to the counter. He asked me for a small cinnamon nugget,” Elijah Johnson told Channel 2 Action News.
Johnson said at the time the restaurant did not have small nuggets to sell.
“I gave him the whole spiel, like, why we don’t have smalls. I gave him the price difference,” he said.
Johnson said things escalated when the customer threw a drink on him.
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“He came around the corner he hit me on the side of my face really hard,” Johnson told Channel 2 Action News.
Latonya Hopkins recorded the viral video. She was with her daughter when she heard the commotion.
“My heart went out to him and like I said in the moment it was just something to record you see things like this all the time,” Hopkins said.
In the video, you can see the customer pulling Johnson’s hair as Johnson hits the customer with a set of tongs.
“I snapped. I went into protective mode for myself because I know that I didn’t do anything wrong to this man,” Johnson said. “I’m looking to press charges on the mall because you guys pay for security there was no security around even afterwards.”
Johnson told Channel 2 Action News he’s not going back to work because he doesn’t feel safe. Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell spoke with the manager of the restaurant who told her he believes the employee was attacked and confirmed that Johnson had put in his two weeks notice.
A representative from Cumberland Mall stated the following:
We’re aware of the incident. This disruptive behavior by the individual is a violation of the code of conduct and we don’t tolerate this.
We’re grateful the employee of Auntie Anne’s is okay. Security was made aware of the incident and quickly responded to provide assistance to the employee of Auntie Anne’s and also asked him if he wanted to file a police report but he declined.
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