WYOMING, Michigan (WOOD) – David Zambrana said he was “not the attacker” in what police called an assault on two employees of a Wyoming Burger King, but the workers are not d agreed, claiming he jumped the counter and then attacked them.
“I was definitely not the aggressor. The video will show me running, trying to get away from these miners,” Zambrana told News 8 on Monday.
The altercation happened Sunday afternoon at Burger King on 28th Street near Michael Avenue SW. In a statement, Wyoming police said Zambrana “acted aggressively” and attacked two teenage employees.
One of the workers, a 17-year-old who asked to be identified only as Isabella, suffered a cut on her forehead. She said another, a 15-year-old girl, has a broken jaw and broken teeth.
“My friend is in the hospital with serious injuries and I have 11 stitches,” Isabella said.
She told News 8 it started when Zambrana was on the drive-thru. The 15-year-old, who worked at the window, came to Isabella, saying a customer had thrown her cup out the window, telling her to “clean that up (expletive)”. Isabella said that when she tried to give him a new cup, he slapped her.
“It splashed all over me. It splashed everywhere outside the window, the counter,” Isabella said. “And then we thought it was over. It happens all the time. cups like this all the time. Oh, you know?
But then he walked around and walked into the restaurant saying he wanted his mug.
“’You just slapped him. It’s outside,” she told him. “’You can go get it outside.’ Like, ‘What do you want us to do? You slapped him with all of our hands and were very rude to us. So what do you want us to do about it?
“He jumped over the counter, and I tried to stop him but couldn’t because he’s an adult,” Isabella continued. ” I could not do anything. What can I do to stop it?
She said he started pouring drinks “all over the hall” and throwing them against the wall.
Zambrana said he went behind the counter to get his drink after asking the workers to wipe it down, believing they had “done something”.
“You keep me waiting. I don’t know what you did to that mug. I don’t want to drink this drink. I’ll just go in and get mine,’ he said, he thought. “And then they, that’s when they pulled out the camera and started talking about my feet. Just bicker. To be childish. So I met them with childishness and poured it on the floor. “
He said he and the employees threw drinks. He said that while trying to leave the restaurant he was blocked by one of the employees and there was a fight.
“When we tried to get him to leave, that’s when it escalated into a fight,” Isabella said.
She said Zambrana attacked her.
“I was trying to go behind him to lock the door…because I thought it was over,” she said. “…I was yelling at him, talking with my hands. And him, I don’t know, he just hit me and kicked me and all my colleagues came to help.
She said her colleagues came to defend her.
“We were trying to get him out, so we were pushing and pushing him… and pushing him, you know, we were trying to get him out of us. We weren’t trying to attack him just to attack him. We were trying to defend ourselves at that time,” she said. “Oh my God, well, I remember thinking, ‘He’s beating my colleague (aged 15). I have to get him away from her. And it hurt her a lot. I could just hear him scream, “Oh, my jaw…He punched me in the face,” and I just remember thinking, “I have to get him away from her.”
Zambrana said the five to six employees behind the counter chased him out the door.
“I tried to close the door and one person put their whole body in the doorway. The others came and opened the door and at that time people were hitting me and my head went down and I just grab the legs of the person that’s there, and while I’m doing that, there’s another pair of legs here and I just pull those legs,” Zambrana described. “My shirt is on top of my head right now. I’m getting kicked. And I had to get out of my clothes. When I get out of my clothes, I’m kicking, you know, and there’s three people standing there and they’re trying to kick me. ‘grip so I just push back, push back, swing.
Zambrana eventually left, leaving the workers to tend to their wounds.
“We were all in the bathroom crying and praying together,” Isabella said. “We were all there and we were just like, ‘We’re fine, guys. It’s gonna be okay, guys. And we were bleeding together in the bathroom.
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Isabella suffered a cut on her forehead during an altercation with a customer at the Wyoming Burger King where she works. (Courtesy) -
Isabella speaks with News 8. (September 5, 2022)
The 15-year-old is expected to undergo surgery. A GoFundMe account was set up to help workers at Burger King.
Zambrana called the police, telling them he had been assaulted. He said police officers came to his home, wrote down his story, took pictures of the scratches he sustained on his back and the injuries to his foot, and left.
The police have indicated that they will file a complaint against Zambrana.
He acknowledged the optics were bad but insisted he was the victim.
“I was running from kids who didn’t look like kids, and I got hit and just had to get out of there,” he said. “How could I get out of this situation when I’m getting pounded?”
He added that he felt bad that the employees were injured and apologized to the workers.
“It’s awful. It looks so bad and I feel bad even though it happened, honestly,” he said. “It’s nothing I wish on anyone.”
Both parties agree on one point:
“It could have ended at the window after I gave her the cup,” Isabella said.
“My actions could have been, ‘Just forget the drink.’ Honestly,” Zambrana said. “It would have avoided everything.”
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