A group of masked Massachusetts teenagers stormed a McDonald’s restaurant and attacked an employee who was behind the counter during the chaotic invasion caught on camera.
Four teens were arrested for their roles in the violent takeover in Lynn — about 10 miles outside Boston — on Sept. 18 after a local football game let out, WHDH reported.
Distressing cellphone footage recorded from inside the McDonald’s shows the massive group descending into the fast-food joint before two of the teens are seen viciously attacking one of the workers.
Several teens — some of them wearing masks — circled the worker and rained punches on him before one appears to put him in a chokehold and pin him against the drive-thru window.
The McDonald’s franchisee said the employee is OK following the mob beating, the outlet reported.
The Lynn Police Department launched an investigation after videos of the assault quickly spread across social media.
Detectives with the department’s Youth Services Unit, assisted by the gang unit and drug task force, identified four teens allegedly involved in the attack and obtained warrants for their arrest, the department wrote on Facebook Wednesday.
All four were taken into custody and charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery, disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, trespassing, affray and civil rights violation with injury, police said.
Affray is the legal term for a public brawl that terrifies bystanders.
The teens are currently being held in a juvenile detention facility awaiting their court appearances, according to police.
Police are withholding the suspects’ identities from the public due to their ages amid the “active and ongoing investigation.
Detectives are still working to identify others involved.
They are also looking into two separate incidents involving large groups of teenagers over the weekend — without disclosing where the second occurred — and noted only the McDonald’s incident turned violent.
The takeover has stunned the community, including Lynn Mayor Jared Nicholson.
“As a father, community member and mayor, I’m deeply concerned by the incidents involving young people in our community this weekend. The Lynn Police Department is actively investigating both incidents, and I have confidence that those responsible will be held accountable,” Nicholson wrote on Facebook Tuesday.
Nicholson said he and his office have “expanded youth-focused investments in public safety, mental health, workforce development and education, while continuing to have the difficult conversations about what our young people need from us.”
“We will continue to address violence when it occurs, hold individuals accountable and, just as importantly, work together to give our young people the support, structure and opportunities they need to succeed,” the mayor wrote.
Nearby resident Charlie Stevens said in all his years living in Lynn, he’s never seen such unprovoked violence from young people.
“It’s just nuts because I was born and raised in this city. I don’t know, it’s just crazy,” Stevens told WHDH.
Another Lynn resident, Phillip Howlant, echoed Stevens’ concerns about the youth in the community.
“It’s sad that the youth don’t have what we had in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, you know?” Howlant told the outlet.
“They don’t have the work ethic, they don’t grow up with understanding that you behave and you listen to olders, and you don’t do stuff like going to McDonald’s and doing that.”
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