Los Angeles police have arrested a 31-year-old woman who attacked a teenage girl, Kassidy Jones, for no reason inside a McDonald’s.
The attack by the elderly woman on the 13-year-old girl happened on Sept. 6, 2023, and was captured on video that has since gone viral video.
In the viral clip, multiple people can be seen watching as the attack took before one person intervened.
“It wasn’t a fight, it was a beating,” Jones said during a press conference days after the attack.
The violent attack on the young Black teenager triggered protests and calls for justice for teen.
Young Jones said she had gone into the restaurant that day with some friends when she was attacked with little warning or interaction with the suspect.
The protests triggered by the now-viral video piqued public interest in the matter, leading to multiple tips that eventually led to the suspect, Ariana Lauifi, police said.
Jones’ family members and community leaders have also called for justice for the 13-year-old girl.
“My daughter is hurting emotionally. She can’t sleep at night. She’s bruised… She doesn’t want to go to school because she’s tired of the kids and everybody asking her what happened and making fun of her,” said Jones’s mother, Angelina Gray.
According to her, McDonald’s hadn’t reached out to apologize.
After the arrest of Lauifi, the Jones family released a statement of gratitude to the LAPD and for the public support.
“The family of Kassidy Jones are extremely grateful that the LAPD has made an arrest of the woman who viciously beat Kassidy in an unprovoked attack inside McDonald’s. As McDonald’s managers and onlookers offered no help in stopping the assault,” portions of the statement read.
Kassidy is still traumatized and undergoing therapy, the family added.
