Police: St. Charles woman attacked by Popeyes worker after requesting refund

By Caroline Hecker

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    ST. CHARLES, Missouri (KMOV) — St. Charles police say a restaurant manager is facing a misdemeanor assault charge after repeatedly hitting a customer in the lobby of the restaurant on Sunday night.

Donna Hendricks, 53, said she decided to go through the drive-thru around 4:30 p.m. on Sunday to grab some food for a friend’s surprise party.

“They told me it would be 12 minutes for the chicken–they were out of the mild,” she said. “I told them, ‘not a big deal,’ and they asked me to pull forward, so I did.”

Hendricks said after about 20 minutes, she went inside the store to check on her order, which totaled more than $50.

“They told me 3 more minutes, I said ‘great,” she said. “I went back out to the car because they told me to, [because] they’d bring it out to me.”

But she said another 15 minutes passed and she was going to be late to her friend’s party, so she went inside to cancel her order and ask for a refund. She said as soon as she stepped foot inside, a male employee said “She’s back,” to the store manager, who Hendricks said proceeded to tell the employee what to do next.

“[She said], ‘I don’t care if it’s raw or not, give it to her and get her out here,” said Hendricks. “I looked at her and I said, ‘Are you talking to me?’ And she said ‘yeah, b*tch I’m talking to you.”

Hendricks said she was stunned at what the manager was saying to her, so she repeated the expletive she thought she’d heard, back to the manager.

I said, “b*tch?” Really? I just want a refund.’ And that’s all it took, she started wailing on me,” said Hendricks.

St. Charles City police confirm surveillance video captured the store manager coming out from behind the counter, grabbing Hendricks by the hair from behind and repeatedly punching her. Police do not have the video in their possession, stating the restaurant was unable to download the footage at the time of the incident.

“When she pushed me down I went straight forward and that’s when she kept nailing the back of my head,” said Hendricks.

Unsure of how long exactly the assault lasted, Hendricks said her phone eventually fell out of her pocket and she was able to call 911. That’s when the manager went outside, followed by an employee.

When police arrived, the store manager was issued a summons to municipal court and is facing a simple assault charge. St. Charles City police said a recent change in state statute requires officers to see visible injuries on the victim for the charge to be upgraded to third-degree assault, a felony.

Hendricks declined to go to the hospital Sunday night, but went to the E.R. Monday morning, she said. There, she said a doctor diagnosed her with a concussion, in addition to having knots on the back of her head and hair loss.

“The shift manager did tell the officer she lost her head over the incident, she has a lot of personal issues going on, what those personal issues are, we don’t know,” said Lt. Tom Wilkison of St. Charles Police Department.

Hendricks said an officer on scene was able to process her refund, although she said she won’t be back as she fears for her safety.

“Everybody has a bad day, but I didn’t deserve that. nobody deserves what happened to me,” Hendricks said.

Popeyes did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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