A 75-year-old Indiana woman died after she flew into a rage over her Tim Hortons order, took a swing at the manager and ripped out a chunk of her hair in the brawl that followed.
Anita Grayson stormed into the Tim Hortons in Fort Wayne — about 120 miles outside Indianapolis — just after 8 a.m. on May 13, and berated a 17-year-old female worker when she was upset about her drive-thru order, according to the Fort Wayne Police Department.
Surveillance footage released by the department captured Grayson pointing and shouting at the worker as the coffeehouse’s 20-year-old shift manager stepped in and told her to leave.
Police alleged that the supervisor touched Grayson when the furious customer stepped toward the young worker.
Grayson allegedly pushed the manager and punched her on the left side of her face. Police said the Grayson hit the 20-year-old hard enough to leave scratches and send her glasses flying.
As Grayson moved closer, the manager pushed her back. Grayson responded by shoving her hand in the manager’s face, triggering a melee that ended with the pair on the ground.
“Ms. Grayson then grabbed the shift lead by the hair and pulled her to the ground and rolled on top of her. The shift lead can be seen swatting at Grayson’s arm as she is being held by her hair,” the department said.
“Two Tim Hortons employees moved in and attempted to separate them but struggled to get the shift lead’s hair out of Grayson’s hand. During the struggle, Ms. Grayson pulled a chunk of hair from the shift lead’s head leaving a raw area on the top of her head.”
Fort Wayne police responded to a 911 call of an “altercation involving a reported battery” and found Grayson unresponsive.
Once the fight ended, the employees returned behind the counter and Grayson sat down at a table and made a phone call, investigators noted.
About 10 minutes after the fight, Grayson lay down on the floor.
Paramedics performed lifesaving measures on the scene, but Grayson later died at a hospital, police said. Grayson’s cause of death was not disclosed.
Grayson’s daughter, Tawnda Grayson, said that her mother had congestive heart failure and was wearing a heart monitor just a week before the fight as she demands action.
“You should not enter a coffee shop for a coffee and a doughnut and come out unalived. That is diabolical,” she told WPTA.
“That’s the elderly lady. That’s not how we treat our senior citizens. We be careful with them. We make sure that they’re alright. We don’t jump on them and attack them. And scare them to death.”
The department said it had not planned on releasing the footage, but felt compelled to counter “a dangerously false narrative” spreading alongside a partial clip making the rounds on social media that showed only the fight and ended with the 75-year-old on the ground.
The Allen County Coroner’s Office has yet to rule on Grayson’s cause and manner of death, but preliminary findings show there were “no significant contributory injuries,” WPTA reported.
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