A verbal altercation between a terminated Panera Bread employee and a manager escalated to violence after the ex-employee was punched not once, but twice by the manager who towered over her.
The incident which was caught on video by a customer, began when a female employee was thrown bodily down a flight of stairs and out the front door of the Panera Bread location in Manhattan, New York today.
According to Gawker.com which obtained the shocking video from the customer, the fight erupted around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Panera Bread location on Park Avenue and 23rd Street.
The video starts after the terminated employee re-entered the store through another door.
An argument could be made that terminated employee should not have returned once she was thrown down the stairs the first time.
The diminutive 5′-2″ or so ex-employee confronted one manager, “threatening to turn up in this bitch,” according to the tipster.
Then another manager entered the fracas and confronted the shrieking ex-employee. A slap can be heard but not seen on the video.
“Don’t punch– DON’T HIT HER!” shouts the tipster as the big oaf manager throws a lazy punch then another windmill punch that can be felt through the computer monitor.
Chaos erupts inside the Panera Bread as the two combatants are separated by staff.
Gawker.com reached out to Panera corporate who made a brief statement: “The associates who were determined to be involved no longer work for Panera.”
The tipster shared this blow-by-blow analysis of the fight with Gawker.com:
You might wanna say she hit him first, but really he had FULL CONTROL over her the entire time, was throwing her around, I think she gets one slap in that was louder than it was painful, then he half punches her once, she spins, and then he REALLY FUCKING PUNCHES her. You can even hear me and my friend yell DON’T HIT HER just before it… I checked on her for a while after the cops left, she seemed ok, she kept saying he really got her in the ear mostly which I know stings like a bitch. She was bleeding a little, and had cuts on her hands but she seemed ok after the adrenaline wore off.
Read the rest here and watch the video below.
