Revealed: The face of the woman accused of brutal McDonald's beating... as it emerges she was arrested for assault last year at the SAME restaurant



Police have charged 18-year-old with brutal attack

It emerges she was charged with assault at same McDonald's last year

Transgender activists plan to hold protest today outside restaurant

Indicted: Teonna Brown appeared in front of a grand jury today

The teenager accused of brutally beating a transgender woman at a McDonald's in Baltimore County was arrested for assault last year - at the same restaurant.

Police today announced they had charged Teonna Monae Brown, 18, after a video emerged of her and another girl allegedly kicking, punching and stamping on Chrissy Lee Polis.

The attack was so violent the 22-year-old had a seizure.



Brown's own sister turned her in on Friday, telling police she and her alleged accomplice, a 14-year-old girl, had admitted to the attack.



News of her arrest came as transgender activists announced they would be holding a protest outside the Rosedale restaurant at 7pm today.

Yesterday Miss Polis revealed how she was 'afraid to go outside' after the April 18 assault, which she hinted could be racially motivated as the two attackers were both black.



And, in what could be a major blow for McDonald's family-friendly image, she claimed staff stood by and allowed the attack to continue.

One worker, Vernon Hackett, filmed the beating and later posted it online, where it attacked hundreds of thousands of viewers.

According to police Brown was arrested last July for allegedly attacking a mother after a dispute inside the same McDonald's.

In a handwritten police statement seen by the Smoking Gun, mother-of-two Danielle Dower, 38, described how Brown allegedly followed her out of the restaurant yelling : 'Did you call me ugly?'

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Traumatised: Transgender woman Chrissy Lee Polis, 22, said she was too scared to go outside after the April 18 attack at a Baltimore County McDonald's

She said Brown 'kept trying to badger us' after she said no and tried to move away with her two daughters.

Mrs Dower claims Brown pushed her, but when she pushed back she 'took her fist and threw a punch to my face.'

In an attempt to get her children to safety, Mrs Dower went into a nearby shopping centre, but claims Brown and two friends followed them inside.

As she called 911, the two friends allegedly seized her daughter by the hair and dragged her across the floor.

Shocking: Brown was indicted on assault and hate crime charges for the attack on Chrissy Lee Polis who was brutally beaten until she had a seizure

Brutal: The girl suffers blow after blow while staff duck out of the way, right



She wrote: 'I had to stop talking to the operator, get on top of my daughter and protect her while trying to fight off those girls.'

The fight left her with cuts to her face, and her eldest daughter suffered cuts to her knee and face as well as bruising to her forehead.

Brown was charged with two counts of misdemeanour assault, but according to the state attorney the victim later asked for all charges to be dropped, and the case never went to court.

Now she faces three first and second-degree assault charges in connection with the April 18 assault of Miss Polis.

The 14-year-old, who was also reported by Brown's sister, has been charged as a juvenile.



Seizure: The girl shakes on the floor uncontrollably after the attack

She has not been named, but police claim she admitted in an interview that she and Brown 'both got into a fight with a woman over using the bathroom.'

Yesterday state's attorney Scott D. Shellenberger said hate crime charges were being considered.

He said: 'If there is evidence that the crime was racially motivated, we will take a look at those charges and see if we meet those elements. We have the ability, if the facts are there, to upgrade the charges at a later date.'

Yesterday their alleged victim, Miss Polis, spoke out for the first time about the beating she received.

She said she was afraid to go outside after the attack. She said: 'They just hurt me really bad, and I'm afraid to go outside now because of stuff like this.'



In an interview with the Baltimore Sun, she said the violence kicked off after she had used the ladies' restrooms in the McDonald's outlet, but denied reports that this was the reason why the violence erupted.

Two attacks? Brown allegedly attacked another woman outside this Rosedale McDonald's last July

She said of her attackers: 'They just seemed like they wanted to pick a fight that night.'

She said she was approached by one of the girls, who accused her of 'looking at my man'.

When Miss Polis insisted that she was not even aware of the girl's partner, the physical abuse began with the girl spitting in her face.

She said: 'She started ripping my hair, throwing me on the floor, kicking me in my face.

'I got up and tried to hit the girl. I had her in a corner, to try to get her off me, and the other girl came up and started kicking me in my face, punching me in my nose, ripping my earring out of my earlobes.'

Miss Polis said there was no way to escape the attack, adding: ' Every time I tried to walk away they followed me.'

Fired: Vernon Hackett, the employee who shot the footage, has been sacked from his job at the McDonald's outlet

Miss Polis said: 'Everybody in that McDonald's sat there and watched me get hurt. Nobody did nothing at all.

'And then they tried to tell [the girls] to leave because the cops were coming, so they could protect them and not me.



'I remember the guy working at McDonald's was taping me on his cell phone, and I told him to get it out of my f***ing face. And he sat there, and he must have taped me even further.'

The fast-food chain has issued a statement about the safety of its customers being paramount, and Rosedale franchise owner Mitchell McPherson yesterday announced that employee Vernon Hackett had been fired.

At one point in the video he can be heard laughing hysterically at the violence.



Hackett raised the ire of his employers after claiming credit for filming the video on his Facebook account, which he has since taken down.

Mr McPherson said: 'My first and foremost concern is with the victim. I'm as shocked and disturbed by this assault as anyone would be. The behaviour displayed in the video is unfathomable and reprehensible.'

Mr McPherson added that action might also be taken against other restaurant workers.

Warning: Video contains graphic images and profanity







