A Clarendon County [South Caroline] waitress is accused of shooting a customer at the restaurant after the two had a dispute."Waitress! These eggs are overdone!"
[BANG!]
Yakeisha Ward, 29, is charged with assault and battery with intent to kill.
"Oh, what have I done?!"
"You shot her. Why?"
An early morning run for breakfast at the Waffle House on Paxville Highway in Manning turned terribly wrong for Crystal Samuel. "I thought I was gonna get me an All-Star," says Samuel. A popular meal on the menu. "Grits, sausage, toast, eggs and a waffle," says Samuel.
"Instead I ate hot lead!"
She didn't get what she came for. Instead, she says while she waited for her order, her friends started eating.
"Mmmm! Grits! Let's eat!"
That's when Samuel says she was told they couldn't eat from carryout trays inside the restaurant.
"Here, you people! Stop that! Stop it, I say!"
"I said what is your fuss about. I said we haven't paid for our food. She (Ward) said well you all got to leave. How you want us to leave and we ain't paid for the food yet," says Samuel.
"Then pay for yer food and get the hell out!"
That's when it got ugly. Samuel says she threw a waffle at the waitress.
"Look out! She's got a waffle!"
"Duck, Yakeisha!"
"I did actually throw some food but it didn't hit her," says Samuel.
"That wuz a close one!"
"That's when she (Ward) jumped across the counter and we got into it," says Samuel.
"Ain't nobuddy throws a waffle at me an' gets away with it!"
Clarendon County Sheriff Randy Garrett says the altercation continued outside
"Take it outside, youse guyz!"
where he says Ward got a gun from her car and a gun magazine from her trunk.
"Go fer yer guns, Yakeisha!"
"Wait a minute! I left my ammo in the trunk!"
"It's poor judgment on her part trying to settle this matter with a weapon.
"I mean, waffles were bad enough!"
"Either way she had time to think about what she was doing when she was walking to her car," says Garrett.
"I'm gonna walk to my car and grab some heat, that's what I'm gonna do!"
Investigators say Ward's gun discharged during the altercation.
[KABANG!]
They say a bullet fragment struck Samuel in the arm.
"Aaaaiiieee! My arm!"
"Deputies were close by when they rolled up in the parking lot the victim and the suspect were still engaged in a fight," says Garrett.
"Break it up, youse two!"
"She throwed a waffle at me!"
"Oh. Well. In that case..."
Before it ended, authorities say Ward struck the victim in the head with the gun.
[KONK!]
"She got the last lick,"says Samuel. Meanwhile Ward has bonded out of jail. On Tuesday afternoon, News 19 found her inside the Waffle House where the incident happened.
"Whuddyou want?"
"Not waffles!"
She declined to talk to us on camera but says she got out of jail after paying $500. As for Samuel, she has only one thing to say about Waffle House. "bad customer service," says Samuel.
"They don't shoot at you down at the IHOP!"
Investigators say it appears that Ward's gun was legally purchased.
But not legally discharged.
