A California man was taken into custody in the brutal attack on a fast-food worker that caused her to lose an eye while she defended a boy with special needs, officials announced Monday.
Isaac White-Carter, 20, of San Francisco, was arrested in nearby Hayward for last month’s attack at a Habit Burger in Antioch, the Antioch Police Department said.
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Fast food worker, 19, loses eye protecting special needs boy from four bullies
The brave girl, Bianca Palomera, intervened when she noticed four Black men harassing a special needs boy — the brother of one of her coworkers who was waiting until their shift ended pic.twitter.com/PTzzxyzM2p
— Klaus Arminius (@Klaus_Arminius) December 6, 2022
The victim, later identified as 19-year-old Bianca Palomera, was punched in the face multiple times and ultimately lost her right eye due to the incident, police said. Palomera was defending a boy with an intellectual disability who was allegedly being bullied by the suspect.
The victim, 19-year-old Bianca Palomera, said the suspect allegedly used slurs toward someone she identified as her co-worker’s brother and threatened “to beat him up,” according to NBC Bay Area “That’s when I step in and I say, you know, ‘it’s not right what you’re doing,” she told the news station.
In surveillance footage of the attack, the suspect appears to get in Palomera’s face and hit her. Palomera fought back and was hit again multiple times. The United States Marshals Service arrested Isaac White-Carter, 20, of Hayward, in connection with the incident on Monday morning after a weeks-long investigation. He was turned over to Antioch police and charged with felony counts of mayhem and aggravated assault causing great bodily injury, according to the statement.
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The Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office, who did not immediately return requests for comment, will be prosecuting this case. In a statement, the Antioch Police Department expressed their “support and gratitude to the victim for helping a community member in need.”Â
Palomera said she doesn’t regret stepping in to help. “This is probably the last thing that I would’ve expected out of anything, but I don’t fully regret, you know, helping, stepping in,” she told NBC Bay Area. “It could’ve been worse for my coworker’s brother.”