Jamaica-born cook plans to sue McDonald's

A Jamaica-born ex-McDonald's cook, cleared after beating two unruly female customers who first attacked him, plans to sue the fast-food giant.

Rayon McIntosh, 31, said he feared for his life when the two unidentified women lunged over the counter of the West Village, Manhattan, eatery on October 13.

"My life was in danger. Females do murder men. I displayed a lot of patience. I was in fear for my life," he told reporters.

"I do plan on bringing a civil suit against McDonald's for putting me in danger. If a security guard would have been there, this wouldn't have happened," he said.

But the franchise owner, Carmen Paulino, said that she has long had private security workers on Friday and Saturday nights.

"First, let me say that I, along with my employees, am happy for Rayon and that he was released and cleared of all charges," Paulino said.

Not a monster

McIntosh said he took the McDonald's job only to help support his daughter.

"I would have never gone to work. I'm not a monster," he said, adding, "I'm a people person."

As for the two women who provoked the violence, he said he forgives them.

"I hope we do learn something from this," he said, adding "you can't just go around bullying people and then spitting on some."

Cellphone video of the ugly confrontation at the franchise shows McIntosh striking the women with a three-foot steel pole, fracturing one woman's skull.

McIntosh was arrested on felony assault charges and jailed at Rikers Island, Queens, for seven weeks.

A Manhattan grand jury refused to indict him, forcing prosecutors to drop the charges and release him Friday night.

"I just feel elated. I wasn't out there looking for trouble," said McIntosh, adding that trouble came looking for him, as he worked on the 9 p.m.-to-7 a.m. (local time) shift at his first job since being paroled from prison in March.

DEFENDING HIMSELF

McIntosh said that when he questioned the validity of a US$50 bill, the two women turned snarly. They berated him with F-words and the N-word, spit on him and slapped him. He said they even insulted his mother.

"I wasn't trained to handle that kind of situation. I think I was patient," he said, telling reporters that the women leaped over the counter.

McIntosh said he grabbed the closest weapon within reach, a steel and aluminium pole used to scrape food from the gutters of the grill.

"I just grabbed that up, and I started swinging it. I had no other option to defend myself."

He said he blames McDonald's for putting him in the perilous position, explaining that staffers had warned the franchise owner of fights, drunken customers and even guns inside the eatery.

In March, police said a 26-year-old gay man was beaten outside the McDonald's by two men screaming homophobic slurs.