Employees attacked at work in separate incidents

Sacramento, CA (WorkersCompensation.com) – A bail bondsman whom co-workers described as a “gentle giant” is dead after being attacked by a client, one of several employees attacked at work recently.

Kevin Brace, 56, was working the night shift at Greg Padilla Bail Bonds in downtown Sacramento when he was attacked on the job.

“He wanted to work overnight because he said people who spend the night in jail deserve to have a bail bondsman here,” Topo Padilla, co-owner of Greg Padilla Bail Bonds, told the media.

Officials said Brace was in the office watching inventory just before 4 a.m. on June 3 when Jacob Levi Mandell knocked on the store’s glass door. Mandell asked to use the phone.

Officials said a fight broke out between Mandell and Brace and that Mandell dragged Brace into the street, where he beat him to death.

Topo Padilla said Mandell was one of the company’s clients. However, Padilla stated that Brace’s death was unrelated to Mandell’s previous interactions with the company. Padilla said Mandell wasn’t angry when he approached Brace about using the phone.

“My family has been in this business for over 50 (years),” Topo Padilla said. “It never happened.”

The police were called to the store due to a fight on the company’s premises. Authorities said Brace died at the scene after Sacramento Fire Department paramedics tried to save him.

“He made a terrible mistake, he went too far to help anyone,” Padilla said of Brace, calling him a “gentle giant.”

In Florida, a gas station attendant was attacked in a locked bathroom by a man with a box cutter.

Police said the clerk was working at a grocery store and gas station in Sanford, Florida, when a man stepped into the wound.

An arrest affidavit says the man, 62-year-old Randal Lee Lawton, came to the RaceTrac gas station later that day but returned to buy coffee and cigarettes.

The victim told officers Lawton went to the bathroom but left to ask for toilet paper. When the woman entered the bathroom to replace the toilet paper, Lawton also entered the bathroom and closed the door behind them.

Lawton then allegedly put his hand over the woman’s mouth and forced her to the ground, arrest records show. When the woman tried to escape, Lawton allegedly tried to slit her throat.

The report said the woman said she resisted and grabbed the knife, cutting her hand. When police arrived at the gas station, they heard her scream and broke into the bathroom. In the bathroom, they found Lawton standing over the woman with a nicer box in his hand.

“(The woman) was covered in blood and had two deep lacerations to her neck and multiple lacerations to her left arm,” the statement read. Police said the victim had multiple cuts on his hands, two deep cuts under his chin and was missing a tooth.

Police arrested Lawton and the woman was taken to hospital. Lawton is being held on $55,000 bail and is scheduled for arraignment on July 23.

In Carbondale, Illinois, police arrested a woman on June 3 after she reportedly attacked an employee.

Carbondale police said they arrested Kodi Colbert, 33, of Carbondale, on charges of aggravated battery and criminal damage to property after they were called to the store for a report of a robbery. Upon arrival, the officers found the attacked employee. Colbert was identified as the prime suspect, although she left the scene, and she was later arrested.

In Dallas, police are trying to find a woman who allegedly attacked a restaurant employee.

Police said the incident happened on April 11 at the Burger King at Lancaster and East Ledbetter in Oak Cliff. The video shows the woman jumping over the barrier and stealing food before attacking the employee.

“She didn’t take the money, so she tried to steal some food, but then they intervened and said, ‘Hey, you can’t steal this food, and then she took some of the property and left.’ said Dallas Police Detective Darren Burch.

Police said the woman is a frequent customer of the restaurant and is asking for help identifying her.

“I need someone to say, hey, we recognize this person and either point me to them, put me in touch with them, or they will contact me and say, hey, here’s what happened and let’s try to solve it,” Burch said.