‘I was outraged by what happened to my daughter’: Mother speaks out after customer throws boiling hot soup on her daughter

By Lindsay Clein

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    RURAL HALL, North Carolina (WXII) — A King woman is now facing charges after throwing boiling hot soup on a 17-year-old worker at the Mayflower restaurant in Rural Hall, leaving her with first-degree burns all over the left side of her body.

The whole incident was caught on camera, which helped identify the woman responsible.

“To have something like that happen is outrageous,” said Denise Tayson, the mother of the victim. “I was outraged by what had happened to my daughter; seeing another woman do that to my child.”

Tayson posted the video to her social media, which has since gone viral, hoping to track down the name of the woman responsible for throwing the hot soup on her daughter.

“And that was not my intention for it to go viral,” Tayson said. “My intention was to find out who attacked my daughter.”

And within minutes, she found the woman’s name.

“I knew a name within seven minutes after posting it,” she said. “And it didn’t stop after that. I have answered more than 200 messages from people reaching out, wanting to know how my daughter is.”

It all unfolded Tuesday night at the Mayflower in Rural Hall.

Denise’s 17-year-old daughter was working on “to-go” orders when a customer became dissatisfied after her card was declined. That customer has since been identified by the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office as 50-year-old Shannon Anette Adkins.

Adkins reacted by throwing the boiling hot soup all over Denise’s daughter.

“When it was tossed on her, it hit her left side of the body,” said Tayson. “I’m very glad plexiglass was in place, because they considered taking it down the week before and did not — so that was a saving grace for not landing on her face. But, the burns started on her neck and made their way all the way down to her thighs.”

The burns, as one can imagine, are extremely uncomfortable and are keeping the teen out of school for the rest of the week. Doctors say it will be at least three weeks before they heal.

“Damages were done, and they’re irreversible,” said Tayson. “You can’t take back what happened to my daughter — this will be something she will remember for the rest of her life.”

Adkins ended up turning herself in on Wednesday after a warrant was issued for her arrest.

She was charged with misdemeanor simple assault.

“I do not want to see her just get by with this,” Tayson said. “As a mother, our hearts hurt when our children hurt — and knowing she’s a mother as well makes it even more outrageous she would do this to someone else’s daughter.”

Their family has been receiving an outpouring of support.

“The community has really reached out in condolences, well wishes and prayers for her,” said Tayson. “We are very thankful for that.”

According to the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office, Adkins did appear before the magistrate and received a written promise.

Tayson is pushing for jail time and stiffer punishments for acts like this involving minors.

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