ST. PAUL -- When customers at a fast-food restaurant here started shouting at and insulting workers, a 15-year-old boy tried to stand up for them this week.
He was met with a tire-iron to the head from one in the group, said his mother, Kristina Eide. Paramedics took him to a hospital for treatment of a laceration to his skull.
“What bothers me the most is kids in that neighborhood can’t even go to Taco Bell and get some food because they have to worry about this stuff,” Eide said. “It could have been so much worse. Thank God it wasn’t.”
Eide, who didn’t want her son to be publicly named, said doctors told him he needed to stay home from school for three to five days to rest and to allow his head to heal. He was also hit in the leg with a tire iron and is using a cane to walk.
While Eide said she’s proud her son tried to do the right thing, she also told him, “You need to pick and choose your battles.”
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It happened Tuesday at the Taco Bell on White Bear Avenue, at Nevada Avenue. Officers were dispatched at 9:05 p.m.
A group of three had been rude to Taco Bell staff and the 15-year-old, a regular at the restaurant, said he didn’t like to see them mistreated, said Sgt. Paul Paulos, a St. Paul police spokesman. The teen told the group to get out.
One in the group called the teen a derogatory name, and a male ran up and hit him, Eide said. The teen hit him back, and he fell to the ground.
A female with the group went outside and brought the male a tire-iron, which he used to strike the teen in the head, Eide said. A police report described it as a metal pipe.
The teen, who was there with friends who tried to help him, defended himself by hitting the male twice with a chair, Eide said.
Eide’s son is 6 feet, 6 inches tall, but she said he has a young-looking face and people can discern he’s a juvenile. And Eide said she has seen the suspects in cellphone videos her son’s friend took, which she has turned over to police, and at least two appear to her to be adults. She’s disturbed that grown-ups would have assaulted a minor.
The group ran out of Taco Bell, and two of them assaulted a 34-year-old man in the parking lot, Paulos said. The victim, who sustained scratches to his face, said he punched one of the suspects in the face, according to a police report.
The suspects fled in a car, and police have the license plate number, Paulos said. They are investigating and hadn’t made arrests as of Friday afternoon.
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