A hatchet-wielding madman attacked three employees at a Chicago McDonald’s on Sunday morning when the cashier refused to give him free food — then he grabbed a cookie and sauntered down the street after the attack.
The assault happened at about 8:30 a.m. Sunday when the unidentified man strode into the South Western Avenue fast food joint and demanded food from the person behind the counter, according to Fox 32 Chicago.
When the cashier told him to get lost, he grabbed what cops described as a “hatchet-like object” and turned on the employees, sending three of them to the hospital.
A customer named Moe Cannon told ABC 7 in Chicago that the suspect had asked him for coffee money just before the heinous assault.
“I ended up giving him a dollar and I gave him a Newport,” Cannon told the station. “He had the axe on him. I didn’t know what he was going to do. Next thing I know, I see people running out of McDonald’s, hollering.”
A few minutes later Cannon watched the man walk out of the restaurant — carrying the now-bloodstained hatchet.
“I saw a little blood on the axe, and he was smiling. He was smiling and walking with the axe like this and eating a cookie,” Cannon said. “Old girl had a hole in her head, and one lady was cut right here, and one boy, he was cut on his face, I think.”
All three victims — an 18-year-old man and two 45-year-old women — are employees, restaurant owner Vincent Hale told Fox Business.
Authorities rushed them to local hospitals, where the man and one of the women are in stable condition.
The other woman is listed in serious condition, Fox said.
“We are deeply upset by the violent attack that took place in our restaurant yesterday morning, harming three of our own team members,” Hale said in a statement to the network. “Nothing is more important than the safety of our employees and customers. We offer our full support to them as they recover, as well as to the police during their investigation.”
The suspect appears to have returned to the scene some time later, and was hanging out at a CTA bus terminal across the street, ABC said.
Officers arrested him and took him away, the station said. But he has not been charged yet.
The McDonald’s was closed Sunday night after the attack, though the drive-thru remained open.
“Man, this messed up,” Cannon, the customer, lamented.
“They don’t mess with nobody. We go to this McDonald’s every day, and they all cool people there.”
