Pittsburgh Jimmy John's employee beaten inside store remembers "head being smashed in"
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A Jimmy John's employee in Pittsburgh who was allegedly severely beaten by two men said he remembers his "head being smashed in."
On Friday, Steve McDonald had nose reconstruction surgery. It's just one of many planned operations after he was brutally beaten inside the Jimmy John's on Penn Avenue location in Downtown Pittsburgh.
All he remembers are bits and pieces of what landed him in the hospital.
"My head being smashed in," he said.
His wife, Katie Morrissey, was at the store on Monday night during the attack. She said she only left for a few minutes and returned to an unrecognizable version of her husband.
"When I went into the store, I just found him on the ground," she said. "I thought he wasn't going to make it. There was just so much trauma and blood."
On Monday night, McDonald, an assistant manager at Jimmy John's, was getting ready to close the shop when police say Tyree Blue-Murphy and Damon Robinson walked into the store.
Blue-Murphy told police he got into an argument with McDonald over petting his 3-year-old dog, Bear.
"I am very alarmed that a person that has such a fragile psyche just by being told no you can pet my dog," Morrissey said
Bear is a deep-pressure therapy dog. He helped McDonald with his anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.
"He's a service animal. He has a right to be there." McDonald said. "You don't have a right to pet my animal. It's called manners."
Pittsburgh police had initially said the incident was an altercation between colleagues, but McDonald said the two suspects don't work at the store. They were located shortly after the attack and taken into custody.
"I'm happy they're in jail, but it doesn't change the fact that I spend the night in the hospital because of it," said McDonald.
