DOCUMENT: Crime

Cops: Customer Battered Pair Of McDonald's Workers

Man, 40, nabbed for New Year's Eve altercations

View Document

McDonald's Battery Video

JANUARY 2--The customer seen in a viral video accosting a female McDonald’s employee allegedly kicked a second worker in the stomach as he was being escorted out of the Florida restaurant on New Year’s Eve, according to police who arrested him on a pair of battery charges.

Daniel Taylor, 40, was in the St. Petersburg restaurant around 7 PM Monday when he reached across the front counter and grabbed worker Yasmine James by the collar and “jerked her forward.”

A video of the incident, seen above, shows James punching Taylor in an attempt to loosen his grip. After letting go of James, Taylor snaps his fingers at a McDonald’s manager and says, “Excuse me, sir. Gimme a refund.”

When James later reappears at the counter, Taylor says, “And I want her ass fired right now.”

As alleged in court filings, as Taylor was being escorted out of the restaurant by McDonald’s management, he kicked worker Tateona Bell in the stomach as she was standing near the exit door. The confrontation, cops says, “was captured on video.”

Seen above, Taylor was arrested on two misdemeanor battery counts and booked into the Pinellas County jail (where he remains locked up in lieu of $1000 bond). A judge has ordered him to stay away from McDonald’s and have no contact with James or Bell.

Taylor, listed as a transient in arrest affidavits, may have been under the influence of alcohol during his McDonald’s meltdown, cops reported. Taylor’s rap sheet includes convictions for lewd and lascivious behavior, passing bad checks, driving without a license, and failure to appear in court. (2 pages)