GREENWICH VILLAGE — A McDonald's cashier is caught on a horrific cell phone video using a metal rod to brutally beat two female customers who'd jumped the counter of his West 4th Street restaurant early Thursday during a fight over their order.
The cashier, who police said had previously served a decade for manslaughter, beat the women so badly that one suffered a fractured skull and broken arm in the shocking attack, which was captured on a customer's cell phone and then posted to YouTube.
Police have charged the cashier, identified as Rayon McIntosh, 31, with felony assault charges, along with criminal possession of a weapon. Both women were charged with menacing, trespass and disorderly conduct. He is being held at the Manhattan Detention Complex on $40,000 bail, according to the Department of Correction website.
The drama began about 12:30 a.m. Thursday when the two customers — Denise Darbeau, 24, of Queens, and her pal, Rachel Edwards, 24, of Brooklyn — entered the popular fast food spot and began giving McIntosh a hard time, police sources said.
In the video, Darbeau, 24, of Queens, is clearly heard cursing at McIntosh after the cashier told her he had to scan a $50 bill to make sure it was authentic before he would give them their food.
That's when all hell breaks loose.
An agitated Darbeau is seen slapping McIntosh across the face, prompting him to lunge forward and shove the two women.
Darbeau leaps onto the counter and clears the other side while Edwards retreats to the other end of the restaurant, according to the video.
Suddenly, McIntosh reappears on the video, brandishing a metal rod, which he slams onto Darbeau's head.
The video, which has audio, is peppered with patrons screaming and wailing in horror and the chilling sound of the metal rod repeatedly whipping through the air and hitting Darbeau and Edwards.
"Stop it! Stop! Stop! Oh my God!” one woman is heard screaming. “Someone call police!”
Fellow workers can be seen on the video unsuccessfully trying to restrain McIntosh. Sources say McIntosh ordered his assailants to stay down, and belted them each time they tried to get up. The continued beating is partially hidden from the camera by the counter.
The two women were taken to the hospital. Darbeau suffered a fractured skull and broken arm which required surgery, according to court documents. She is in stable condition. Edwards suffered a deep cut.
McIntosh served more than a decade in prison after being convicted of shooting and killing Oshan Litchmore, 17, a classmate at Bronx's Evander Childs High School in 2000, when he was only 19 years old. The two teens were outside Macy’s at the Galleria Mall in Westchester when they got into an argument. The fatal bullet passed through Litchmore and hit an eight-year-old passerby in the leg.
McIntosh, who presently lives in the Bronx, was sentenced to 10 to 12 1/2 years in prison. He was paroled last March after serving 11 years, and has been working in the Village McDonald's since then, according to police sources.
McIntosh is due back in court Oct. 18.