LA restaurant worker brutally attacked as he defended pregnant co-worker from customer upset over his food order
A Los Angeles restaurant employee was brutally attacked when an enraged customer claimed the workers — including a pregnant server — were taking too long to bring his food out.
Kevin Oxlaj, a busser and host at Wokcano, an Asian restaurant and bar, was standing behind the counter when a customer began shouting at one of the other employees on May 19.
Oxlaj spoke up for his co-worker, who is pregnant, as the irate patron began to walk away.
“I told him, ‘Please don’t scream at my co-worker. She’s pregnant. She can’t be going through all this stress, please show some respect,'” Oxlaj told KABC.
“We did tell him that we apologize,” he added. “We did tell him we are sorry that it took forever.”
The man then returned to where Oxlaj was standing, removing his jacket amid the heated confrontation.
The unidentified man towered over Oxlaj who stretched out his arm and tapped the man, security footage obtained by the outlet shows.
The customer then strikes Oxlaj in the jaw and sends the smaller man backward.
Oxlaj pushed the man back, but the brute landed several more jabs in his second attack as a good Samaritan tried to break up the brawl.
“I felt the rest of the swings,” Oxlaj said. “A customer ended up getting out of his table, ran out of his seat and was able to push him out, but as he was pushing him away from me, the guy had me, like, still by the arm … didn’t want to let me go.”
The employee remains out of work as he deals with his injuries which include bruising around his ear and face.
Oxlaj, who has a tube inside his ear that helps drain excess fluid from his brain, feared he could’ve been killed in the attack.
“That was the most terrifying thing for me was that he would have gotten me here and I would have been dead,” Oxlaj said, pointing towards the area behind his ear.
“I can’t sleep correctly because my whole chest, my whole back hurts,” said Oxlaj.
The unidentified customer hasn’t been arrested and has returned to the restaurant on at least four occasions looking for the worker, Oxlaj’s mother Isabel Hernández told KABC.
“Honestly, I’m terrified to step foot around downtown LA now due to the fact that he did tell my co-workers, ‘Oh, I’m going to be looking for him,'” Oxlaj added.
“I didn’t want it to end this way because it was just over an order of food that took forever.”
Earlier this month, an argument over a McDonald’s order led to the fatal shooting of an attorney.
Jeffrey Limmer, 46, was allegedly killed by Anthony Martin Landry, 57, when the suspected shooter requested a refund from the workers at the Houston area joint.
Limmer intervened and the two eventually wound up outside in the parking lot when Landry pulled a gun and shot the attorney.
