HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — An employee at a Henrico County doughnut shop is opening up about the scary experience of being pepper sprayed at work.
At around 8:40 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 14, an unknown man walked into Country Style Donuts on the 8900 block of West Broad Street in Western Henrico and took aim at the workers inside.
The incident was caught on the shop’s security camera footage. In it, a man can be seen reaching across the counter and spraying Tucker’s coworker directly in the face with pepper spray.
“My coworker was taking care of customers, no problem or trouble. I had just taken a moment to sit down in the back,” said Alexander Tucker, head baker at Country Style Donuts. “Then, just suddenly, I hear him scream my name and a loud booming coming from our door.”
The video then shows the man yelling “come here” at the employee as they try to flee. The suspect then begins to head toward the door that leads into the back of the shop. The man opened the door and ran into the back room, coming face-to-face with Tucker.
“Before I even had a chance to at least do anything, he had already had me pepper-sprayed and immobilized,” Tucker said. “Thankfully for me, it did not get in my eyes or my mouth. But either way, I wouldn’t recommend it to a soul to try that.”
The man sprayed both Tucker and his coworker before walking out of the shop without taking anything. Both are okay, but are left shaken up and wondering who would do something like this and why.
“No one lost their lives. Nothing was stolen,” said Tucker. “It was just a very strange predicament where someone who might have mental issues just thought that he was about to have harm to him, and he just brought upon his own justice.”
Owner of Country Style Donuts, Nader Nassereddine, said he couldn’t believe this happened at his shop to his employees. He said they have no idea who this man was or what he wanted, but they are thankful the situation didn’t escalate any further.
“It’s just shocking, because, you know, this usually doesn’t happen here. It’s a family place. It’s a family restaurant,” Nassereddine said. “It’s just unfortunate that this happens. One bad apple, you know, just tries to ruin it for everybody. But we’re not going to let that discourage us, and we’re going to move forward and keep on going.”
Anyone with information related to this incident is asked to contact the Henrico County Division of Police at 804-501-5000.
