70 Year-Old Wal-Mart Cashier Punched By Customer On Christmas Eve ‘Flew Across The Floor’

Grace Suozzi, a 70 year-old Wal-Mart cashier, probably thought the worst part about working on Christmas Eve was being stuck in a store instead of spending time at home. And then, just before 11:30 a.m., she ran into 26 year-old Jacquetta Simmons.

Simmons and a male companion had made some electronics purchases in the back of the Batavia, N.Y., Wal-Mart and were asked by Suozzi to show them a receipt as they were leaving the store. According to Rebecca Ball, a shopper making some last-minute buys, Simmons began shouting at Suozzi — so loudly, she told WHAM (ABC’s local affiliate)’s Angela Hong, that people in the back of the store, “by the women’s clothing department,” were listening to it. “Everyone just stopped in their tracks wondering what was going on,” she says.

Ball said that Suozzi asked for the receipt, Simmons refused, Suozzi “stepped out of her box,” and Simmons punched her in the eye. “The cashier lady flew across the floor,” Ball explained.

As Simmons and her companion fled the store, customers — “a hundred people, mostly men,” according to Ball — ran out of the store and surrounded the two, not allowing their car to leave until police arrived. While all this was going on, Ball was tending to Suozzi, who was on the ground, bleeding.

“She was very nervous and was wondering what had happened to her,” Ball said. “She was bleeding very bad, because she had a gash under her eye. She was very confused.”

Simmons, who is supposedly twice the size of Suozzi, was arrested on two counts of second-degree assault. State Police Trooper Tracy Patterson told WMAZ that Simmons faces a second count because Suozzi is older than 65.

Suozzi was discharged from the hospital early on Christmas Day. Simmons is due in court in January.

Watch the report on the Christmas Eve assault below, courtesy of WHAM: