MANHATTAN — The employee captured on shocking video beating two women with a metal rod at the Greenwich Village McDonald's said that he was merely defending himself against "aggressive people," according to the Daily News.
The stunning Oct. 13 incident at the West 3rd Street eatery, which was first reported by DNAinfo, left Denise Darbeau, 24, with a fractured skull and her friend, Rachel Edwards, 24, with a deep cut on her arm.
The women became irate after cook Rayon McIntosh, 31, went to verify a $50 bill that they used to pay for their food.
McIntosh, an ex-con who served a decade in jail for manslaughter, told the News in a jailhouse interview that he tried to calm the women down.
"I was not looking for trouble," he told the paper. "The trouble found me. People are portraying me as a vicious attacker."
McIntosh, who has since been fired, said that one of the women threatened to cut him and called his mother a "whore" before slapping him and leaping over the counter.
That's when McIntosh grabbed a rod used to clean the griddle and started beating both women.
"I was being attacked by aggressive people I didn't know," he told the News. "I was just defending myself."
McIntosh, whose story drew a wave of support, faces felony assault and weapons charges while the women were charged with trespass.
Darbeau's father said that while his daughter was "culpable," the beating was "vicious."
