Woman bloodied after Detroit liquor store visit, 2 different stories emerge

DETROIT (WJBK) - Police are investigating after hearing two different stories in a Detroit liquor store confrontation that left a woman in stitches.

Paulette Jones of Detroit says she went into Chalmers Plus liquor store on the city's easy side and grabbed as 12-ounce Miller High Life from the cooler.

She says as she walked toward the door, an employee ran from behind the counter.

"I guess he assumed I was going to take the beer, but I wasn't," she said. "I had every intention of paying for it."

Jones claims the employee grabbed her.

"He had both of my arms behind my back and came around with the bottle to my forehead," she said.
She says the employee struck her with a bottle of beer.

"The impact of the beer hit me, cut me because the beer didn't break," Jones said.

Witnesses say the employee then went back behind the counter and pulled out a gun, telling Jones "Get out before I shoot you in the face."

Customers guided Jones out of the store as she bled from her head and face.

"This is a lot over a $1 beer. I can tell you that. This is a lot. This shouldn't have happened," Jones said.

A witness recorded cell phone video and posted it on Facebook Live, as police arrived to the Green Light liquor store.

Community members outraged by Jones' injuries are calling the employees actions barbaric.

"Over a little beer? A little 12-ounce beer. He beat a woman upside the head for a 12-ounce beer," said Pastor Kelvin Montgomery

Detroit police say the fight was out of sight of Green Light cameras, adding that the employee tells a very different story. The owner told FOX 2 that Jones was drunk, threw the beer at the employee and has been caught stealing several times.

"(I) never said I was stealing it," Jones said. "I think he thought I was going to take it because I was walking toward the door."

The employee also told police he was defending himself because Jones started biting him, but Jones says she never did.

"You (are) wrong. You know you (are) wrong and you need to pay for what you did," she said.

The owner of the store has fired the employee and apologized to Jones, saying he'll also pay for medical bills.

Police are still looking into possible charges.