Photo: McDonald's employee is rushed to Bellevue Hospital after being stabbed.
Photo: Police officer steps over blood as he investigates the scene of a stabbing in front of the McDonald's on 8th Ave and 34th Street. A security guard at a busy McDonald's in Manhattan was stabbed Friday when a dispute spilled out onto the busy sidewalk.
Dozens of onlookers watched in horror - others took pictures with their cell phones - as the guard tried to fight off his attacker.
The victim was thrown to the ground and used a cane to try to fend the suspect off. He kicked the man. And then the security guard was stabbed in the leg twice.
The man with the knife ran off and the victim was in stable condition at Bellevue Hospital.
Police said the incident began about 10:30 a.m. inside the fast food joint on Eighth Ave. between 34th and 35th Sts.
"I saw the guy on the ground trying to defend himself with a cane," said Nelson Abreu, a doorman at the New Yorker Hotel on the west side of the street.
"The cane broke, and like two minutes later he was bleeding. Lots of blood coming from the leg. Then the other guy just walked away down Eighth Avenue."
"(The security guard) always has problems with colored people wanting to come in and go to the bathroom to do drugs, so he has to say no a lot," said Joe Estrella, 39, a regular customer at McDonald's.
"He probably just said no to someone and it went wrong after that."