A Clermont woman and her Orlando cohort were arrested after a brawl at a McDonald’s restaurant.
Officers responded to McDonald’s, located at 2640 E Hwy. 50, after a fight between 23-year-old Aminata Assette Diao and a male coworker around 2:15 p.m. Wednesday, April 15, according to an arrest report from the Clermont Police Department. A female witness, 27-year-old Jamelia Nevaeh Duggan, claimed the co-worker was the primary aggressor.
However, video footage provided by a manager showed the incident started with the co-worker walking toward the food assembly line on the left side of a table. Diao came toward him while looking at her phone and turned in his direction. When the two passed each other, she hit his shoulder with hers, the report said.
He did the same back, to which Diao threw out her elbow to hit him in the arm. She then turned around and shoved him. He responded by turning around and punching her, after which he walked outside, the report said.
Another video showed when the coworker exited the back door of the restaurant and paced around. Diao then came out with a child’s chair, which she used to hit him in the face. He defended himself by punching her, the report said.
Duggan separated them, only for Diao to grab the chair again and hit the coworker in the face with it once more. He picked it up and tried to throw it back at her, but he did not hit her with it. Diao continued to approach him, and the two began striking each other with closed fists, the report said.
Eventually, the coworker picked up Diao and threw her to the ground, where her face hit the concrete. Duggan again separated the two until law enforcement arrived, the report said.
The coworker later told law enforcement that he got into an argument earlier in the morning with Diao over a food order. She asked another employee a question about when a chicken biscuit would be ready, and the coworker answered her instead. She became angry and told him to shut up, the report said.
He then explained the fight as it happened in the recordings. At the end, he was told he would be going to jail and responded by saying he would let the video show what happened. He sustained a laceration to the left side of his bottom lip that was still bleeding, the report said.
However, his statement and the footage completely contradicted what Duggan wrote in her sworn statement. She wrote that the coworker started with Diao that morning by telling her to shut up. He was the one who hit Diao first and threw the chair in her version of events, the report said.
She signed her statement three times, knowing she would commit perjury. When asked why her story was not lining up with the camera footage, she seemed to be confused. She stated she believed that what she wrote was what she saw, although it all happened so fast that she could have missed something, the report said.
Diao was ultimately arrested on charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and battery. She was booked at Lake County Jail and released after posting $6,000 bond.
Duggan was arrested on charges of false information to law enforcement officer and perjury. She was booked and released after posting $3,500 bond.