Teens suffer lacerations, broken jaw after Labor Day weekend assault at Wyoming Burger King
WYOMING — Two teenage girls, 15 and 17, were hospitalized following an assault at Burger King after a customer allegedly jumped the counter and attacked them over a missing beverage.
The incident took place Sunday, according to reports from FOX-17 and WOOD TV-8. One of the teens, Isabela — who requested her last name not be used — was the manager at the restaurant on 28th Street in Wyoming when a customer in the drive-thru line complained about soda running down the side of his cup, she told FOX.
Isabela, 17, told WOOD her 15-year-old coworker asked for help after a customer threw his cup through the window at her, telling her to “clean this (expletives).” Isabela said when she tried to give him a new cup, he slapped it at her.
“It splashed all over me," she said. "It splashed all over the outside of the window, the counter. And then we thought it was over. That happens all the time. People slap cups like that all the time. Oh well, you know?”
But the alleged assailant, later identified as David Zambrana, drove around and walked into the restaurant, asking for his cup. Isabela told WOOD she said Zambrana could get his drink outside.
“‘What do you want us to do? You basically slapped it out of all of our hands and you were very rude to us. So, what do you want us to do about it?’"
Isabela said Zambrana then jumped behind the counter, grabbed a stack of cups and started filling them up and pouring them out, all over the walls and floor.
"Like, just throwing a tantrum," she told FOX.
Zambrana agrees he went behind the counter, but claimed he did so because he believed they'd "done something" to his drink.
“You guys are making me wait," he told WOOD. "I don’t know what you guys did to this cup. I don’t want to drink this drink. I’m just going to come in and get my own."
When the employees attempted to confront him, they said, Zambrana punched, kicked and body slammed Isabela so forcefully she blacked out. Isabela told FOX his final punch to her forehead required 11 stitches. She also suffered a cut above her eye, bruising on her neck from choking and a bruise on her thigh.
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The other 15-year-old employee suffered a broken jaw, several broken teeth and permanent nerve damage after running to Isabela's aid, and had to undergo reconstructive surgery Monday afternoon.
Isabela told FOX the incident is a frustrating reminder the fast food workers are often mistreated, and is unsure if she'll return to work.
“Where am I supposed to work at?” she said. “I can’t go be a physician or I can’t go be a veterinarian at 17 years old. You need to respect the people in the drive-thru and the people behind the counter because if we’re not doing it who’s going to do it?”
Both the employees and Zambrana claim they contacted police following the attack. Zambrana told WOOD officers came to his house, took down his story, snapped photos of a minor scratch to his back and a cut on one foot, and left.
Police have indicated they will seek charges against Zambrana, who continues to insist he was the victim.
“I was running from kids that didn’t look like kids, and I got hit and I just had to get out of there,” he said. “How could I get out of that situation when I’m being pounded on?”
Isabela's aunt has launched a GoFundMe for the teens, with a $2,000 goal, praising the 15-year-old and other employees who helped Isabela.
"(They) are all heroes," she wrote. "If it was not for their intervention, I genuinely do not believe my niece would have survived this attack. Although it breaks my heart that another child was severely injured and others traumatized, my family and I are incredibly grateful they were there to help. We will never forget the sheer kindness and selflessness they displayed in helping Isabela."
— Contact reporter Cassandra Lybrink at cassandra.lybrink@hollandsentinel.com. Follow her on Instagram @BizHolland.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Teens suffer lacerations, broken jaw after Labor Day weekend assault at Wyoming Burger King
