A CVS employee in swanky SoHo had her jaw shattered by a knife-wielding lunatic as she tried to assist a safety guard — then obtained canned when she requested for assist paying her medical payments, in line with a brand new lawsuit.
Abigail Downey, 25, was working her normal night time shift on the drug retailer within the stylish Manhattan neighborhood final fall when an erratic man started terrorizing buyers and brutally pummeled her and a safety guard she tried to assist, courtroom paperwork mentioned.
The possibly lethal nut then whipped out a knife earlier than arriving cops subdued him, she mentioned.
Downey finally filed a employee’s comp declare for her jaw harm, which left her unable to chew meals, and inside 24 hours, she was fired for “escalating office violence,” she advised The Submit.
“Reasonably than expressing concern for [Downey’s] accidents,” her supervisor “criticized her for leaving early” from work that night time — about half-hour earlier than the tip of her shift, in line with the plaintiff and her go well with.
Downey advised The Submit, “I used to be shocked.
“It was like a 2-minute impromptu assembly within the workplace.”
The supervisor allegedly advised Downey she was being given the boot as a result of she had a private taser in her bag. Downey didn’t pull out or use the taser through the assault, her go well with mentioned.
Her lawsuit mentioned the declare was simply an excuse to keep away from paying for her accidents after she tried to assist the poor safety guard.
“Defendants selected retaliation over accountability,” her lawsuit claimed, blasting the pharmacy chain for allegedly operating an under-secured, unsafe retailer and throwing an injured worker straight to the curb.
Downey advised The Submit, “It’s a wider social drawback.
“When you dare to try to intervene, dare attempt to assist any person, it may well get rotated on you.”
She claimed that the Sixth Avenue retailer was infamous for chaos and thievery however that CVS solely employed safety for “defending merchandise” and never for security.
The lawsuit additionally blamed the unnamed safety firm for hiring an alleged ineffective guard, claiming his job was “defending merchandise quite than offering cheap safety for the protection and safety of staff and prospects confronted with foreseeable violent legal acts.”
Downey advised The Submit, “It was by no means about our security right here.
“Our shoplifters and assailants knew that. They’re like, ‘Oh I do know you’re not allowed to the touch me, you’re not allowed to observe me.’
“It was a free-for-all.”
Her lawyer, Nicole Brenecki, added, “When an organization is devoting extra time and sources to defending its deodorant stock than stopping foreseeable assaults by itself staff and prospects, one thing is basically unsuitable with the corporate’s priorities.”
Downey has since gotten a brand new job with a competitor.
“I wouldn’t change the best way that I acted — I might do the identical factor once more,” she mentioned. “I can’t do it any otherwise.
“All the onlookers who solely appeared, who did nothing, who didn’t even name the police, proper? They’re effective. They stored their jobs. I’m not resentful of that,” Downey mentioned. “[But] it appears to me that in case you act with humanity within the entrance of your thoughts, you’re going to get punished for it.”
CVS declined to remark to The Submit.
