FLORIDA CITY, FLA. (WSVN) - - A South Florida woman says she was harassed and humiliated by her coworkers at a restaurant in Florida City, and the taunts eventually turned into a brutal beating.
7news spoke to the victim.
Twenty-year-old India Sweeting, the mother of a two-year-old, said she’s only been working for less than a month at the KFC, located in the 200 block of Southeast First Avenue.
“I’m supposed to feel safe at my place of work, and it was the total opposite of that,” said Sweeting, who called the job a nightmare.
She said she constantly faces threats and bullying from her coworkers, but Monday night it turned violent.
“So I was having a little trouble on the register, so a couple of the workers, you know, they got aggravated. But it went from aggravation to saying direct things to me, and it was like threats,” said Sweeting, describing the events that lead to the fight. “And I’m like, ‘You can’t really be serious. You really want to fight me over messing up something on the register?’ From that point on, she charged at me. That’s when I went running for my life.”
According to the police report, video surveillance shows the attack began outside the back door of the KFC.
“Once I got to the floor, everyone was kicking me,” said Sweeting. “I had to run and practically get up off the ground and run away from the crowd.”
Sweeting said she was dragged, punched and kicked.
“Even in the moment of time of them beating me up and all these girls on me, nobody was stopping it,” she said.
Sweeting was able to get inside, locked herself in the bathroom and call the police.
But she said it could have been prevented if her manager had done something when she first brought the harassment to his attention.
“He explained to me if I was to leave, he was gonna fire me. I can just get back on the register and just ignore it, and nothing’s going to happen to me,” said Sweeting. “From that point on, everything spiraled into a whole physical altercation.”
A fellow employee said that what he witnessed was something completely different. He said Sweeting was the one who wanted to fight.
“She was instigating the whole fight the whole night,” said KFC employee Raymond. “Nobody was speaking up on her. Everybody was just getting mad because she was doing wrong orders and ringing up the wrong stuff.”
Sweeting suffered a black eye, bruises to her back and scratches. She said she now needs physical therapy, and is afraid to go back to work.
“I’m scared completely to go back there,” said Sweeting. “There’s no way around it — there’s no way I’m going back.”
Thursday afternoon, a KFC spokesperson issued a statement that reads, “We have zero tolerance for workplace harassment of any kind, and we take these matters very seriously. The franchisee who owns this restaurant is conducting a thorough investigation into this matter and the other employee who was involved in the altercation has been suspended, pending the outcome of that investigation. In addition, a representative from the franchisee attempted to contact Ms. Sweeting yesterday, and will continue to try to reach her.”
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