A witness captured a video of the moment two homeless men attacked a security guard in a Santa Monica, California, McDonald’s restaurant Wednesday night.
In the video, the guard tries to use pepper spray to defend himself from the attackers.
“He eventually pepper sprays the guy in the face,” the witness, who declined to be identified by name, told local Fox affiliate KTTV.
One of the attackers, wearing a brown sweatshirt, who does not seem to be deterred by the pepper spray, throws a few punches at the security guard.
A man wearing an orange shirt tries to intervene and break up the fight by throwing a chair in the direction of the attacker.
“He hits the guy on the top of the head with a chair,” the witness said.
The fight reportedly lasted several minutes, moving out of the restaurant onto the sidewalk and back inside the restaurant again until police showed up, CBS Los Angeles reported.
One of the men tried to snatch the security guard’s weapon as he continued to pummel the officer.
“At some point the security guard’s baton is taken and it’s used against him,” Lt. Saul Rodriguez of the Santa Monica Police Department said. “At that point people tried to intervene and assist the security guard.”
Rodriguez said the incident began when the security officer asked the two men sleeping at the restaurant to buy something or leave the premises.
“They were taking up space. It’s a private property, so the security guard was asking them to buy some food or they needed to leave,” Rodriguez said.
Police pulled up outside the restaurant just the security guard evicted the two men and arrested one of the suspects, who had grabbed the officer’s baton, for assault with a deadly weapon.
The security guard left the fight with a few cuts and bruises, but refused medical attention at the scene.
Residents say the Santa Monica McDonalds on 2nd and Colorado streets is open 24 hours and sometimes attracts homeless people who have nowhere else to go at night.
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