LA restaurant employee Kevin Oxlaj attacked by customer over food order

US News

From Nicholas McEntire

A restaurant worker in Los Angeles was brutally attacked when an angry customer claimed that staff – including a pregnant waitress – were taking too long to serve him his food.

Kevin Oxlaj, a waiter and host at Wokcano, an Asian restaurant and bar, was standing behind the counter on May 19 when a customer started yelling at one of the other employees.

Oxlaj spoke up for his pregnant colleague as the angry patron walked away.

“I told him, ‘Please don’t yell at my co-worker. She’s pregnant. She can’t go through all this stress, please show some respect,'” Oxlaj told KABC.

“We told him we apologize,” he added. “We told him we’re sorry it took so long.”

The man then returned to Oxlaj and took off his jacket amid the heated confrontation.

According to surveillance footage obtained by the station, the unidentified man towered over Oxlaj, who extended his arm and tapped the man’s finger.

The customer then punches Oxlaj in the jaw, sending the smaller man backwards.

Oxlaj pushed the man back, but the brute landed several more punches on his second attack while a Good Samaritan tried to break up the fight.

“I felt the rest of the fluctuations,” Oxlaj said. “A customer ended up getting up from his table, running out of his seat and was able to push him out, but when he pushed him away from me the guy was still holding me by the arm… didn’t want to let me go.”

The employee remains unemployed as he struggles with his injuries, which include bruises to his ear and face.

Oxlaj, who has a tube in his ear to help drain excess fluid from his brain, feared he may have been killed in the attack.

“The scariest thing for me was that he would have brought me here and I would have been dead,” Oxlaj said, pointing to the spot behind his ear.

“I can’t sleep properly because my whole chest and back hurt,” Oxlaj said.

The unidentified customer was not arrested and returned to the restaurant at least four times to look for the employee, Oxlaj’s mother, Isabel Hernández, told KABC.

“Honestly, I’m terrified to set foot in downtown LA now because he told my colleagues, ‘Oh, I’m going to look for him,'” Oxlaj added.

“I didn’t want it to end like this because it was just a food order that took forever.”

Earlier this month, a dispute over a McDonald’s order led to the fatal shooting of a lawyer.

46-year-old Jeffrey Limmer was allegedly killed by 57-year-old Anthony Martin Landry when the alleged shooter demanded a refund from workers at the Houston-area eatery.

Limmer intervened and the two ended up outside in the parking lot when Landry pulled out a gun and shot the lawyer.