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Coworker Pulled A Knife On Me.. What Should I Do?

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For context, I live in NC and work at a relatively high scale restaurant as a food runner. The person I had this interaction with is one of the line cooks, and we never talked much but ever since I started working there, any time I would tell him hi or bye, he would just refuse to acknowledge me. I’m not sure why, but it seems like he’s had a problem with me ever since I’ve been there.

I was putting dirty dishes in the dish pit, and when I stepped away me and this line cook ran into each other. This wouldn’t have happened if he had said “behind” which is something we say when walking through the kitchen to avoid this sort of thing. I didn’t say anything and he goes, “not even gonna say excuse me?” and I just reminded him that he didn’t say “behind”, it’s not my fault, but regardless it’s not a big deal.

I walked back to the line to wait for more food to run and he came around the corner with a knife, saying “sharp, corner” which is just what we say when we’re walking through the kitchen with something sharp. But then he looks at me and says, “no, you know what, get in the way and see what happens” and he repeated that a few times. I was confused and asked him if he was okay because I thought, wow there’s no way this dude is actually this upset because I didn’t say excuse me. He then takes the knife and points it directly at me, with the tip being inches from touching my stomach. I was in a bit of shock and can’t remember exactly what he said but he was just trying to intimidate me and get a reaction out of me.

I stood my ground and just said something like “are you fucking serious right now?” And he eventually mumbles under his breath and walks off. I immediately went to go tell a manager and they said a group of them will sit down tomorrow to watch the footage and then talk to me after.

I’m just not sure if it’s a good idea to get the police involved in this since it has to do with my job. And im also not sure about the laws surrounding what he did. He never made an explicit verbal threat but he was clearly threatening me with the knife non verbally. I’m scared of what will happen if he gets fired or if I press charges, im afraid that he might retaliate and actually try to harm me while im going to/leaving from work. What should I do in this situation?

submitted by /u/cynicalsalads
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