St. Petersburg, FL – A petite McDonald’s employee fought back against a violent customer on Monday evening, after the man became enraged to learn there were no plastic straws at the condiment station (video below).

Daniel Taylor, 41, then began screaming at the restaurant employees, witness Brenda Biandudi told WFTS.

“He was yelling and walking toward the counter and the young lady behind the counter told him that it’s the law now that we’re not allowed to have straws in the lobby,” Biandudi recounted.

St. Petersburg’s new law prohibits restaurants from having straws up-for-grabs in the lobby area, and requires customers who want a straw to request one from an employee.

The law will change again in 2020, when straws will be banned altogether.

Yasmine James, the employee behind the counter, took the brunt of Taylor’s rage, and initially tried to explain the law to him, Biandudi said.

But Taylor insisted she was lying.

“They started exchanging words laced with profanity and he said ‘there’s no such law that exists,’ and she was saying ‘yes, it is a law,’” said Biandudi.

Biandudi took out her cell phone to record the escalating situation, and captured the moment that Taylor lunged over the counter, and grabbed James by her collar.

He yanked the woman towards him, and she momentarily fell onto the counter before she grabbed onto his shirt and began punching him in the face, the video showed.

Other employees intervened, and Taylor ultimately released his hold on the woman’s uniform shirt.

“Excuse me sir!” Taylor said, snapping his fingers at a manager. “Give me a refund.”

“I want her -ss fired. Right now,” he added.

“No!” James yelled back at him. “You’re fixing to go to jail!”

Other employees ushered James away from the area as Taylor argued that he did nothing wrong.

“I was just asking you a f–king question, b—h!” he declared.

Biandudi said Taylor ultimately left the restaurant, then stormed back in to yell at the manager some more, WFTS reported.

He also allegedly kicked a different employee in the stomach before he left the restaurant for good.

A short while later, Taylor called police from a location a couple miles away from the store to report that he had been hit in the head repeatedly, KVVU reported.

“When the officers arrived, they recognized Taylor from the video at McDonald’s and took him into custody,” police said.

Taylor has been charged with two counts of simple battery, WFTS reported.

“I don’t know what was in his mind but I just hope he gets the help that he needs,” Biandudi said. “She had to do what she was doing. She’s a petite girl and I just felt she did the right thing.

In a statement McDonald’s said the business has been “fully cooperating” with the police investigation into the incident, and that the safety and well-being of their employees and customers is their “highest priority,” WFTS reported.

You can watch footage of Taylor’s attack in the video below: