ATLANTA — An Atlanta woman is describing how she was the victim of a violent and traumatic assault by three fast-food restaurant employees after she told them they’d gotten her food order wrong and she tried to get them to correct it.
Her accusations are now in a lawsuit filed in Fulton County State Court, naming all three and the restaurant’s corporate owner as defendants.
At a news conference Friday, the woman, Denetra Dawson, said she is still trying to recover physically and psychologically.
She and her attorneys spoke of how, on the night of September 3, 2022, three Popeyes restaurant employees came outside, opened her car door, and jumped her--while she was at the drive-thru window at 839 Cleveland Ave. in southwest Atlanta. She said they punched her with closed fists, tore out her hair and caused spinal injuries, all because, she said, she had tried to get them to correct her food order.
“I simply went to get food for my kids,” Dawson said Friday. “Why me? I didn’t even think I was going to make it back to my kids.”
“She was attacked, she was traumatized,” said Mawuli Davis, one of the attorneys representing Dawson. “And there are a lot of people that are going to need to be held responsible for this.... Ms. Dawson went out to simply get this 12 piece box of chicken. And what ends up happening is that they get the order wrong. She tries to correct them over the speaker. They're not paying any attention. She pulls up to the window. At the window, she's trying to communicate. 'Hey, you got this wrong.' They get upset. They call her the B-word. They start raising their voice.”
That’s when, Dawson said, the three ran outside and up to her car, got inside and began to assault her.
According to the lawsuit, the employees were angry with Dawson because she was sitting in her car at the take-out window, trying to correct the food order, which meant that she was slowing down the drive-thru line. And Dawson’s attorneys said the employees are penalized if they don’t keep the drive-thru line moving fast.
“They decided they were going to fix that problem by attacking Miss Dawson and getting her to move, or forcing her to move, her car,” Davis said. “And they're all converging on her, beating her, punching her, scratching her, attempting to choke her.”
Dawson said they stopped beating her and left her car only when she was able to pull her gun on them.
Atlanta police arrived and arrested the three employees—a mother, Tenister Evans, the restaurant manager; her daughter, Zariah Evans; and a niece, Tenice Taylor--and charged them initially with misdemeanors.
Dawson was taken to a hospital emergency room and continues to receive treatment, Davis said.
Dawson’s attorneys said that because the restaurant manager, Tenister Evans, has a record of violent crimes, including convictions for assault, Popeyes should have known, before they hired her, that she could be a threat to customers.
The owner of that Popeyes is 755 Restaurant Corporation, based in Atlanta.
The corporation was founded by Hank and Billye Aaron in 1995 and now owns 23 Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen restaurants and 2 Krispy Kreme Doughnut shops, according to its website.
As of Friday night, the company had not responded to requests from 11Alive for comment and to confirm whether the company has security camera video of the incident.
11Alive is also working to reach the other defendants for comment.
“I just pray that this, what happened to me, don’t happen to no one else,” Dawson said, “and I get the proper justice and bring some light to my situation so it won’t happen to no one else.”
The lawsuit is demanding that Dawson be awarded $10,784.11 for her medical expenses, and is also demanding punitive damages against the defendants in an amount as determined by a jury.
“Where can you be safe if you cannot go out and get food for your children and return home without incident?” Davis said. “That that's kind of basic.”