A 25-year-old man with a history of criminal offences has been charged with assault second-degree after he viciously attacked a 15-year-old McDonald’s worker during a brawl. The beating is alleged to have occurred after a rowdy group of customers arrived at the fast food joint on April 7 and began harassing the young employees.

Videos of the incident posted on social media allegedly show Johnny Ricks pulling Aryiah Lynch by her hair in the parking lot and assaulting her multiple times near the drive-thru of the restaurant. 

According to the police, Ricks went into the establishment when Lynch was working her shift behind the counter. He got upset and threw a tray into an electronic menu. When other employees escorted him outside, he seemingly grew angry and pulled Ms Lynch to the ground and “stomped on her head twice”.

The attack left the girl with a concussion, fractured skull and frontal lobe damage.

The girl’s family has set up a GoFundMe account to help cover her medical expenses. “My 15-year-old daughter and her teenage co-workers were assaulted at their place of employment. They came into the McDonald’s and began to spit on my daughter and the young man at the cash register. The incident started in the drive-thru and escalated inside. The adults also began to destroy McDonald’s property by throwing things and damaging the self-serve screens,” Shawnunique Phillips, the teenager’s mother, wrote.

“She is fighting hard to stay upbeat and heal but this is only the beginning of a very uphill battle,” her mother wrote, adding that the incident “shattered” the family’s lives.

Ricks is currently being held at the St. Louis County Justice Center on charges of felony assault and property damage in the second degree. His next court appearance is scheduled for April 25.

Meanwhile, Ms Lynch is currently out of the hospital and on bed rest, though she hopes to return to work.

McDonald’s Operator Jimmy Williams said, ”Ensuring the safety of both our employees and customers is paramount to me as a local business owner. My team and I want to extend our sincere gratitude to the St. Louis County Police Department for their exceptional work.”

A video has surfaced on the internet showing a hooded man in the UK attacking a Muslim woman in broad daylight in a suspected racist attack, Metro reported. A video of the incident that has gone viral shows the woman wearing hijab standing on a street in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, on Tuesday. Seconds later, a hooded man comes charging towards her and hurls a concrete slab at her head. Thankfully, the woman is able to move out of the way. She is then seen running away from the attacker towards two bystanders.

An X user shared the video and wrote, ”This is absolutely horrific – a hijab-wearing Muslim woman has had a paving slab thrown at her head by a white man in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.”

Watch the video here:

This is absolutely horrific – a hijab wearing Muslim woman has had a paving slab thrown at her head by a white man in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

Violent Islamophobia is on the increase. pic.twitter.com/AqjNBRIqiI

— Waqas Tufail (@_WaqasTufail) October 25, 2023

Her husband Eid Karimi told The Independent, ”I went inside to get food and she chose to wait outside in the rain because she had an umbrella. Suddenly I saw people running around and this guy. He tried to run but I ran after him and grabbed him. He was shouting ‘Don’t call the police, I won’t do it again. We were holding him down for the police to arrive. He knew he was in trouble.”

Though she didn’t suffer any injuries, she is ”shocked and stressed”, her husband added.

Many internet users were left shocked to see the video and hoped that the woman was okay.

One user wrote, ”Appalling. I hope that she’s okay.” Another wrote, ”This is awful. What a world when we don’t embrace our differences and learn from one another, instead such hatred from small-minded bigots and racists. I hope this lady is ok.”

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman refused to confirm if the attack was being treated as a hate crime. He said, ”We are aware of this video and can assure residents such incidents are treated extremely seriously. A man has been arrested in connection with the offence and enquiries are ongoing by Kirklees Police.”

Last week, London police said they had recorded a 1,353% increase in antisemitic offences this month compared to the same period last year, while Islamophobic offences were up 140% in the wake of the attack by Hamas on Israel.