Former McDonald's manager speaks out after throwing a blender at customer

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Monday, October 28, 2019
Former McDonald's manager speaks out after throwing a blender at customer
Former McDonald's manager speaks out after throwing a blender at customer

COLERAIN TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- A former McDonald's manager in Ohio is telling her side of the story following an altercation with a customer last month that was caught on camera.

Video from inside the restaurant shows the dispute with a customer that ended with the manager throwing a blender at the woman, hitting her in the face.

"It's just been just rough since September 22nd," said Nashawnda Johnson, former manager.

Johnson no longer works at the restaurant and is now looking for a new job.

She has spent the last month reflecting on the worst day of her more than 10-year career with McDonald's.

It was inside the location in Colerain Township near Ronald Reagan highway where she was part of the now infamous over-the-counter food fight.

Customer Britany Price says she waited for an incorrect food order to be fixed and eventually threw the bags of food at Johnson.

Price suffered a shattered cheekbone and broken nose when Johnson chucked a blender at her and it ricocheted off her face.

"Her demeanor first off was just very aggressive, very intensive and almost demeaning," she said.

But Johnson remembers it differently.

"She's the one who started this. It would've never went down like that if she would have never threw stuff at me," she said.

Johnson says it was a shift change and she was in the back with the general manager verifying money. She says she asked the general manager to handle the situation so she could finish.

"She was like, 'Nashawnda, stop doing what you're doing, just go up there and give her the refund.' So I'm like, 'Karen, as soon as I get up there, it's going to blow up, you hear how she's up there just going off, cussing, just being real irate and real rude up there'," she recalled.

Johnson says she could hear cussing as she approached the counter and talked with Price about exchanging the food. She also says only managers have the code to process refunds, which added to Price's more than 25 minute wait time.

Johnson says she then went to get the general manager because the situation was getting worse.

"As me, walking away from the register, going to the back. She just started assaulting me from the back, she threw a chocolate milk and hit me in the head with it as I had my back turned, so I turn around, here come the apple juice, hit me in the face. All the happy meals and the brown paper bags, she just started going crazy. So every action has a reaction, so while I'm getting assaulted, I just picked up anything that was right there and just threw it back at her," said Johnson.

She says she didn't realize she threw a blender.

Does she regret throwing anything?

"Yeah I do, because I miss my job. That's what I do," she said.

As Johnson looks for a new job, Price sets more doctors appointments. It's a painful outcome.

"I never had no incident like this. Never, because I've always been able to defuse the situation to whatever it is - their food is wrong, we cheated them out of money, or always, it never got to this point," she said.

According to WLWT-TV, criminal charges have not been filed. However, Price's attorney says she is pursuing a civil suit.