Photo: Instagram / Twitter
He didn't have camping in mind when he went to McDonald's.
By Isaac Serna-Diez — Written on Sep 20, 2022
On September 16, 2022, a video of an altercation that occurred at a McDonald’s went viral after one of the men involved pulled an axe from his bag and began to threaten those involved.
Days after the video received over 26 million views on Twitter, 31-year-old Michael Palacios was interviewed by the New York Post to get his side of the story that unfolded that day in the fast food restaurant.
The McDonald’s axe man claims that he did 'what anybody would do' in the situation.
According to Ruben G, an Uber Eats driver who captured video footage of the incident on his phone, Palacios grew angry when a woman in the fast food restaurant “rejected” him, via the New York Post.
“So basically he got into an argument with a girl, and then the girl rejected him. She didn’t want to talk to him. He kept going at her…that’s when the guys she was with stepped in and they started arguing. It all led to that,” Ruben said.
Palacios, however, claims that the story went completely different than how it’s being portrayed online.
He claims that he got into an argument with one of the patrons after a security guard refused him entry into one of the bathrooms at the restaurant.
“I’m like, ‘Yo, bro, c’mon. Open the bathroom,'” he told the New York Post. “And then I hear, ‘You, you don’t have to be mean about it.’ I’m like, ‘Shut the f--k up.’ I didn’t even look back."
"I just said it, and then it all became, ‘Oh, I’ll slap you.’ I’m like, ‘Where are you gonna slap me?’ And that’s when I came at the guy.”
Palacios claims that the men in the video were the ones who escalated the situation and that he eventually got tired of it and slapped one of them.
After the slap, three of the men attacked Palacios, who was stuck behind trash bins and cornered — when they stopped is when he pulled out his axe.
“I wanted to intimidate them,” he said, answering why he brought out the weapon, clarifying that he had no intentions of hurting anyone.
Referring to why he broke one of the tables and some glass, he said “I wanted to show them that the hatchet was real. It’s not a toy.”
At one point during the video, Palacios can be seen getting in one of the women’s faces and talking to her, which he claims was because he told her “Don’t be hanging out with punk a-- dudes because they’re going to get you into problems like this.”
Aside from his love for camping, Palacios had another reason to keep an axe in his bag.
“I got jumped once in Chicago, and I told myself I was never going to let that s--t happen again,” he said. “Honestly, I just randomly picked it up at Home Depot a couple of weeks ago. It was still in my bag.”
He talks about how crime is everywhere and how he wanted something to protect himself — bringing up a story about how a random man was attacked with a hammer on that same corner 10 years ago.
“So, 10 years ago, somebody got hit with a hammer,” he said. “Today, somebody hit a table with a f--king hatchet. I think things are getting better, if you ask me.”
“I’m not unhinged. I’m not psychotic. I just did what anybody would do when being pummeled. What would you do? Take out your phone and call 911?”
When asked why he carries an axe over something like a gun, he says it provides him with more options.
“Think about it. If you only think that the thing you can protect yourself with is a gun, we’re all going to go to f--king jail,” he said. “With a hatchet, I have my options — throw it or just smash a f--king table. With a gun, all you do is shoot.”
He was arrested later on Friday, September 16, 2022 — the same day as the incident — and was arraigned on charges of criminal mischief and weapons possession.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Since graduating from Rutgers University, he spends most of his free time gaming or playing Quadball. Keep up with his rants about current events on his Twitter.