Wingstop Manager Doused Patrons With Ranch, Hot Oil

JANUARY 30--A 19-year-old Wingstop manager is facing felony charges after she doused two customers with “hot grease and ranch dressing” during a confrontation Tuesday night, police charge.

According to investigators, the victims tangled with Carnael Irene, the Wingstop worker, inside a Port St. Lucie, Florida outpost of the chicken wing restaurant.

Irene told police that the customers--one of whom is a minor--were “loud and disruptive” and caused a disturbance. During the dispute, which is not further detailed in an arrest report, one of the patrons pushed a container of straws off the counter.

The conflict, cops say, “escalated” when Irene (seen at right) responded by throwing ranch dressing at the victims. She then went into the kitchen and returned with a bucket of hot grease and threw the liquid at the victims.

Store security footage reviewed by police showed an individual trying to hold back Carnael, but she “pushes forward and throws the liquid in the bucket.”

Irene, cops say, “admitted to spraying ranch dressing on the customers” and “justified her actions by stating the customers were being verbally abusive and had reached over the counter to knock over the straws.” She claimed the tossed oil did not strike the patrons.

The hot oil recipients complained that the liquid burned upon impact and resulted in “shiny burnt skin.” A crime scene investigator photographed their injuries. When cops arrived at Wingstop, the eatery’s floor was “greasy and slippery,” and it appeared that workers attempted to clean “the oil that was all over the floor.”

Irene was arrested and charged with aggravated battery and aggravated child abuse, both felonies. She was freed yesterday from the county jail, where bond had been set at $15,000. (2 pages)