(Image Source: Steven Hirsch / Pool Photo)
What seemed like a brutal attack against two disorderly patrons in a Manhattan McDonald’s last month has ended with the attacker going free. Here’s CBS New York...
“Dana, the Manhattan District Attorney has just announced that a grand jury, which has been meeting for nearly two weeks, has decided not to bring charges against Rayon McIntosh.
BACKGROUND: “Stop! Stop! Stop!”
“The video was made by customer on a cell phone. McIntosh is the 31-year-old McDonald’s worker who was attacked by two female customers in Greenwich Village, when they leaped over the counter”.
The women face pending charges of menacing, criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct, and McIntosh served 48 days in jail for the incident -- but now he’s free; a grand jury has ruled that his actions were in self-defense.
McIntosh explains to the Gothamist.
“‘I was being attacked by aggressive people I didn't know,’ said McIntosh. ‘I was just defending myself. They came in and went crazy on me.’”
But defense lawyer Harold Baker, who represents the two women, was quote “shocked and dismayed at the grand jury’s decision.” The New York Post spoke with him.
"‘The grand jury did not have the benefit of my clients' testimony because the DA refused to give immunity to my clients," he said. ‘Because they didn't do that, a violent man is going free.’”
News blog ScallywagAndVagabond speculates on what the jury debated over -- and what ultimately swayed them.
“ … a moral dilemma, had Mr McIntosh gone overboard in his self defense when he relentlessly started clubbing the women, causing one of them permanent brain injury? … Ultimately what saved Mr McIntosh was that he was at work not looking for this situation …”
Curiously, this particular McDonald’s has a history of violent incidents. In April, a homeless man beat another customer because he was gay.
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