Jeanette Norris told WTOC-TV that every now and then she'll come across an upset customer at her family's business — but a couple who ordered meals last Thursday afternoon took their dissatisfaction to a frightening level.
A man and woman complained their chicken from Qwik Chik's takeout stand off U.S. Highway 1 in Baxley, Ga., was cold and that they didn't get enough fries, the station said.
Image source: WTOC-TV video screenshot
After some discussion, Norris refunded the money, WTOC reported — but apparently that wasn't good enough for the couple.
"She went berserk. She just lost it. Him and her both started cussin' and beatin' on the window," Norris told the station of the couple.
So Norris told WTOC she came outside to inform the couple that police were on the way — and then things got way worse.
Surveillance video shows the woman punching and slapping Norris in the face as she retreats inside her takeout stand.
Image source: Baxley Police
At that moment, Norris' 15-year-old daughter gets out of a truck and confronts the couple. The woman is seen walking past Norris' daughter — but the exceedingly large man the woman is with does not.
Instead he rears back and punches the girl in the face, knocking her off her feet and into a chair. The couple drove away as two other customers arrived, WTOC reported.
Image source: Facebook video screenshot
"One of my employees started shoutin', 'He's got her! He's got her!' And that's when I found out that he had hit her," Norris told the station. "Who does that to a child? Who turns around and hits her like he would a grown man standing there? He needs puttin' up under the jail."
Norris suffered a broken nose in the attack, the station said, and her daughter suffered bruises and a concussion.
Image source: WTOC-TV video screenshot
Police told WTOC the attack was completely unprovoked.
"I've been here, what, 41 years — 30 of them as chief," Baxley Police Chief James Godfrey told the station. "I have never seen anything like this. I've never heard of anything like this." He added, "The security camera footage that we put out tells it all. That's just pure brutality."
Based on information from those who saw video of the attack, police told WTOC they're looking for Nathaniel Eric Smith and Latasha M. Smith, both of whom have active warrants for aggravated battery and cruelty to children. Police told the station they're considered dangerous and tend toward violence and were still on the loose Monday.
Nathaniel Eric Smith and Latasha M. Smith (Image source: Baxley Police)
The suspects left in a cream or silver 2007 Cadillac Escalade with tag number REU8495, police told WTOC, adding that they have access to a silver 2004 Cadillac Deville 4s with Georgia tag number PVK5483 and a green 1996 Cadillac Deville 4s with Georgia tag number BXQ1673.
The pair are described as a heavy-set, medium-height, black male wearing a black T-shirt, red shorts and a red cap, the station said, and a slender, tall, black female wearing an all-black shirt, pants and cap. Officials told WTOC they were headed north on Highway 144.
