The former McDonald’s cashier who was arrested for assaulting two female customers with a metal rod is claiming self-defense.

Rayon McIntosh, 31, was still wearing his McDonald’s uniform when he was arraigned in court last week. McIntosh is being held at Rikers Island on $40,000 bond.

In a jailhouse interview with the NY Daily News on Friday, McIntosh said his shift at the Greenwich Village restaurant on Oct. 13 was uneventful until Denise Darbeau and Rachel Edwards, both 24, came in and paid their check with a $50 bill.

One of the women became outraged when McIntosh checked to see if the bill was genuine, as required by store policy.

“She started saying nasty things to me,” said McIntosh, speaking in a thick Jamaican accent.

“She said, ‘Oh, you think my s–t is fake?’ … She started saying, ‘Suck my d–k.’ She called my mother a whore.”

The women, particularly the Dom/stud Darbeau, became increasingly hostile, spitting on McIntosh and threatening to “cut me up,” he said. “Then she came over the counter and slaps me.”

McIntosh said that when Darbeau’s girlfriend jumped the counter to join in the fracas that was when his instinct for survival kicked into high gear.

He grabbed a metal rod used to clean grills and started swinging wildly.

“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.”

“I was not looking for trouble,” said McIntosh, wearing a crisp gray jail outfit. “The trouble found me. People are portraying me as a vicious attacker.

“I was just working at my job when I was attacked for no reason. I’m not a heartless person.”

A cell phone video shot by a McDonald’s customer caught McIntosh bashing Darbeau in the head with the bar, sending her crumpling to the floor. Then he dropped Edwards with another swing of the bar.

Fueled by an adrenaline rush, he continued to rain crushing blows down on each of them every time they struggled to get up. Darbeau, the most aggressive of the two women, got the worst of it: her skull was fractured and her arm broken.

Darbeau’s mother said she suffers from permanent brain damage and memory loss. She remains hospitalized.

Hundreds of Facebook and Twitter users have rallied to McIntosh’s defense, saying he had every right to defend himself.

Readers on the NY local CBS affiliate website left over 640 comments that were overwhelmingly supportive of McIntosh, including the comment below.