Seating dispute at Jurong West food shop turns violent; man slaps worker

SINGAPORE: A male customer slapped a female employee at a food store, and in response, the female employee threw a chair and hit him with a basket full of spoons and forks. The cause of the fight? Seating arrangement.

The fight happened at a shop located in Jurong West Street, and both were later arrested by the police.

Case details

As reported by Shin Min Daily News, bystanders present at the scene immediately called the police when the fight happened. When reporters arrived at the scene, the female employee was sitting at the nearby stairwell, with a police officer standing next to her. Furthermore, a tall man was sitting on the open ground on the other side of the store, and he was being questioned by investigators as well.

In an interview, the manager shared that the conflict was due to a misunderstanding regarding seating arrangements. In a video that the manager had provided, the man was sitting in a corner area having a meal when a female employee approached him. The female employee then pointed at him and said something, which led the man to stand up and slap the female employee.

Afterwards, the female employee pushed the man and threw a chair at him twice. It was also seen that the woman threw a basket full of utensils at the man.

It was believed that the man was sitting at one of the tables used to display food during Ramadan, which is why the woman asked him to leave. The man refused to cooperate and suddenly attacked her. The woman felt dizzy after the attack and was taken to the ambulance for examination. Moreover, the authorities took the man away from the scene.

When contacted, the Singapore Police Force confirmed the case and admitted that a 55-year-old woman was taken to the hospital while conscious. Both were arrested for public nuisance.

A regular customer

One of the vendors said that the man was a regular customer and had never experienced any conflicts with the staff before. It was also revealed that the man declared that he would leave after finishing his meal, but the female employee was rude.

More so, witnesses heard that the female employee verbally abused the man first, which led to the fight.

Other related news

In similar news related to assault, there was a report where a 28-year-old hot-tempered woman pleaded guilty to intentional assault alongside other charges after attacking four women in a row, including a 74-year-old woman and a 47-year-old female police officer investigating her case.

With this, she was sentenced to 36 weeks in prison. Read more about the story here.