Police arrest suspect in attack on worker who lost eye

ANTIOCH, Calif. (AP) — Police in the San Francisco Bay Area have arrested a 20-year-old man in connection with an attack last month on a fast-food worker that cost her an eye.

The employee was assaulted Nov. 12 when she tried to protect a boy with an intellectual disability who was being bullied by the suspect at a Habit Burger in Antioch, police said.

The woman was punched in the face multiple times and ultimately lost her right eye due to the incident, the Antioch Police Department said in a statement Monday.

Isaac White-Carter, of San Francisco, was arrested in nearby Hayward and could face felony charges including mayhem and aggravated assault, the statement said. It wasn’t immediately known if White-Carter has an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

The victim, 19-year-old Antioch resident Bianca Palomera, underwent surgeries and was given a prosthetic eye, officials and her family said.

Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe said he would call a special meeting on Dec. 13 to bestow the key to the city to Palomera for her “heroic efforts” in defending the boy.

Bianca was doing nothing more than standing up for a kid who had special needs,” the mayor said in a Facebook video. “In my book, Bianca is a hero.”