Two women have been charged in a brawl that broke out at an East Flatbush, Brooklyn nail salon Friday after a dissatisfied customer refused to pay for her services.
Witness Mercy Maduka filmed the melee on her cell phone and shared the video on Facebook, where it garnered hundreds of thousands of views. Apparently, longtime customer Christina Thomas was unhappy with the eyebrow wax she received at the New Red Apple Nails Salon and refused to pay. That’s when an argument ensued between she and shop owner Huiyue Zheng, the two women eventually coming to blows.
“So I’m at the nail salon and they f*cked up a lady’s eyebrow and she refused to pay then a fight broke out,” Maduka wrote in her Facebook post. “Share this cause the cops decided to arrest the Black people but not the Chinese people who ganged up on them — hitting them like animals.”
Zheng was arrested and charged with assault, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon, according to court documents obtained by News 12. Meanwhile, Thomas, who Zheng repeatedly attacked with a broomstick, also faces misdemeanor assault charges.
Hundreds of locals gathered to protest the salon Monday, demanding it’s shut down for good. Folks also called for the charges against Thomas to be dropped.
“I’m expecting justice, but most of all I’m expecting Black people to learn that when these business don’t respect you, you don’t spend your money with them,” said author and TV personality Tionna Smalls, who helped organize the protest.
“Shut them down, and they need to be arrested for gang assault,” she added. “If that was a Black salon and that happened, we all would have been locked up.”
Witnesses said Thomas, 21, visited the salon with her grandmother last week and received a manicure, pedicure and eyebrow wax. Thomas wasn’t pleased with the wax job, however, so manager Michael Lin waived the $5 fee, station ABC 7 New York reported.
Lin asked the young woman to pay for the remainder of her services, but Thomas insisted she’d already paid. That’s when Lin dialed police, saying Thomas refused to pay for any of her or her grandmother’s services that day. Workers tried to keep the customers inside the store as they waited for officers to arrive, and that’s when the fight broke out.
One of the workers allegedly threw acetone in the women’s eyes and beat them with sticks, according to an Instagram post by a woman identified as Thomas’ mother.
“ … My Mother, daughter and her friend where attack Friday night by a gang of Asian nail technicians,” she wrote. Why? Because, my daughter refused to pay them for a botched 5$ eyebrow wax.”
Watch more in the video below.
https://www.facebook.com/News12BK/videos/10156939742912697/
