A CVS worker in swanky SoHo had her jaw shattered by a knife-wielding lunatic as she tried to help a security guard \u2014 then got canned when she asked for help paying her medical bills, according to a new lawsuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Abigail Downey, 25, was working her usual night shift at the drug store in the trendy Manhattan neighborhood last fall when an erratic man began terrorizing shoppers and brutally pummeled her and a security guard she tried to help, court documents said.<\/p>\n
The potentially deadly nut then whipped out a knife before arriving cops subdued him, she said.<\/p>\n
Downey eventually filed a worker\u2019s comp claim for her jaw injury, which left her unable to chew food, and within 24 hours, she was fired for \u201cescalating workplace violence,\u201d she told The Post.<\/p>\n
Former CVS worker Abigail Downey says she was punched in the face intervening in a violent melee at her store, only to be fired for it. Stephen Yang for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than expressing concern for [Downey\u2019s] injuries,\u201d her manager \u201ccriticized her for leaving early\u201d from work that night \u2014 about 30 minutes before the end of her shift, according to the plaintiff and her suit.<\/p>\n
Downey told The Post, \u201cI was shocked.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like a 2-minute impromptu meeting in the office.\u201d<\/p>\n
The manager allegedly told Downey she was being given the boot because she had a personal taser in her bag. Downey did not pull out or use the taser during the assault, her suit said.<\/p>\n
Her filing blasts the pharmacy chain for allegedly running an under-secured, unsafe store and throwing an injured employee straight to the curb. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Her lawsuit said the claim was just an excuse to avoid paying for her injuries after she tried to help the poor security guard.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDefendants chose retaliation over accountability,\u201d her lawsuit claimed, blasting the pharmacy chain for allegedly running an under-secured, unsafe store and throwing an injured employee straight to the curb.<\/p>\n
Downey told The Post, \u201cIt\u2019s a wider social problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you dare to try and intervene, dare try to help somebody, it can get turned around on you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems to me that if you act with humanity in the front of your mind, you\u2019re going to get punished for it,\u201d Downey said. Stephen Yang for NY Post<\/p>\n
She claimed that the Sixth Avenue store was notorious for chaos and thievery but that CVS only hired security for \u201cprotecting merchandise\u201d and not for safety.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit also blamed the unnamed security company for hiring an alleged useless guard, claiming his job was \u201cprotecting merchandise rather than providing reasonable protection for the safety and security of employees and customers confronted with foreseeable violent criminal acts.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Downey told The Post, \u201cIt was never about our safety here.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur shoplifters and assailants knew that. They\u2019re like, \u2018Oh I know you\u2019re not allowed to touch me, you\u2019re not allowed to follow me.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a free-for-all.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a wider social problem \u2014 if you dare to try and intervene, dare try to help somebody, it can get turned around on you,\u201d Downey said. Stephen Yang for NY Post<\/p>\n
Her lawyer, Nicole Brenecki, added, \u201cWhen a corporation is devoting more time and resources to protecting its deodorant inventory than preventing foreseeable assaults on its own employees and customers, something is fundamentally wrong with the company\u2019s priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Downey has since gotten a new job with a competitor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t change the way that I acted \u2014 I would do the same thing again,\u201d she said. \u201cI can\u2019t do it any differently.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of the onlookers who only looked, who did nothing, who didn\u2019t even call the police, right? They\u2019re fine. They kept their jobs. I\u2019m not resentful of that,\u201d Downey said. \u201c[But] it seems to me that if you act with humanity in the front of your mind, you\u2019re going to get punished for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
CVS declined to comment to The Post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A CVS worker in swanky SoHo had her jaw shattered by a knife-wielding lunatic as she tried to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[40468,2850,4327,57,9,56,63,65,64,58,3301],"class_list":["post-312058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-cvs","tag-lawsuits","tag-manhattan-supreme-court","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-us-news","tag-violence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}