McDonald’s Employee Beats Mother As Bystanders Watch

Police in Salem, New Jersey are on the hunt after a female McDonald’s employee violently assaulted a woman outside the fast food restaurant as a dozen or so bystanders stood by, NBC10 reports.

“I think it’s messed up no one came to my rescue,” said Catherine Ferreira, the 27-year-old victim and mother. She came under attack last Tuesday evening. A video (via The Smoking Gun, WARNING: graphic) showing the McDonald’s employee beating Ferreira was posted on Facebook shortly thereafter. Sadly the video shows exactly one person trying to intervene in the beating–the two year old son of the victim. If you watch the video, you’ll notice the little boy kicks the assailant several times, to which the suspect responds “You’d better get your son before I kick him in the [expletive] face, too!”

The accused McDonald’s employee is a 25-year-old woman named Latia Harris, The Smoking Gun states. The beating was the result of an alleged accusation from the suspect, who believed the victim, who used to work at the very same McDonald’s with the suspect, had been spreading rumors about her and the McDonald’s manager. NBC10 reported the following statement from the Salem City McDonald’s:

I am aware of the incident involving one of my employees earlier this week. I am extremely disturbed by this kind of behavior and it goes against the values and standards that I expect from my employees in my restaurants. This employee will not be serving customers pending this important police investigation and I’m fully cooperating with the local police in this matter.

If there is a silver lining to the story, it’s the brave heroics of her son, who, as stated above, had tried his hardest to protect his mother from the attacker. In a report from CBS Philly , Catherine Ferreira, the victim and mother states the following:

After that I became so much closer to my son because he didn’t care what was going on. He wasn’t afraid, he just wanted to defend his mom. That’s my world right there, I love that boy so much.

Ferreira ended up suffering from a broken nose, two swollen black eyes, and a concussion as a result of the assault, though the mother knows it could have been worse. “I could have been dead right now,” Ferreira told CBS Philly. “Had she hit me in the right spot it would have been over, over nothing.”

The 25-year-old suspect, who is still at large, “has been charged with aggravated assault and two counts of making terroristic threats,” says NBC10.