MIAMI (WSVN) - A Subway employee in Downtown Miami caught on cellphone video allegedly swinging a large kitchen knife at customers said she was just trying to protect herself.
Twenty-nine-year-old Chelsea Lloyd’s last day at work at the Subway along Northwest First Avenue and East Flagler Street was especially rough for several different reasons.
“I was bluntly disrespected and physically assaulted,” she said. “Most people assume that I’m a man, but once they realized that I was a female, [they said], ‘Oh, what, you’re a [expletive] he-she?'”
Lloyd said she was called even harsher words about her gender and sexuality before being threatened sexually by the group upset over how their sandwiches were being toasted.
Lloyd said she yelled back, and the altercation became physical.
“He walked to the side of the register and hopped back to slap me,” she said.
Vincente Timiraos, who was involved in Monday’s altercation, captured at least part of the incident on his cellphone.
He said things escalated over an issue with his sandwich, prompting Lloyd to come at him with a large knife.
“The subway employee came out with a knife the size of God knows what,” said Timiraos. “She started coming out, swinging the knife everywhere. She came outside with the knife.”
Lloyd, however, insisted there’s more to the story.
“He walked to the side of me and tried to slap me,” she said. “While I’m tussling with him, blocking his hands, you have the gentleman in the black shirt and the black hat that picked up the cookie jar and stepped closer to me, over the counter, and tossed it at me.”
The bizarre and scary showdown unfolded at and around the sandwich counter before it spilled outside the restaurant.
The incident ultimately landed Lloyd in jail and out of a job.
She said there’s surveillance video inside the store that should show that she wasn’t the only one who got violent.
“They were nonstop coming towards me,” she said. “Once I had seen that I’d instilled a little fear in them, I took it overboard, but I was out of my mind at the time. I was upset.”
Lloyd is heard in the cellphone video provided by the victim talking about the slap.
“The [expletive] is wrong with you? You slapped me, slap me now!” Lloyd yelled in the video.
Timiroas said he was scared for his life and was glad he didn’t pull out his firearm.
“I was scared for my life,” he said. “I was carrying a firearm, so I decided to step away from the situation and wait for the police to come.”
Lloyd is facing an assault with a deadly weapon charge.
In court, she was ordered to stay away from Samuel Torres Jr., one of the men involved.
Even though she admits she overreacted, Lloyd said the incident was more complex than her accusers claim.
“Their actions caused my reaction,” she said.
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