A barista at a drive-through coffee stand in South Seattle used a hammer to shatter a customer’s windshield following a heated verbal altercation with the man.

Emma Lee, the owner and sole employee of the coffee stand Taste of Heaven Espresso, claims that the customer threatened her on Tuesday (June 11) after being displeased with the price of the coffee he had ordered.

Other customers tried to calm the man down for 10 minutes, but he remained agitated and continued to display violent behavior. 

At one point, the customer threw his drinks back at Lee as she closed the drive-through window.

A barista at a drive-through coffee stand smashed a customer’s windshield using a hammer after he threatened her and threw his coffee at her

Image credits: Nathan Dumlao/Unsplash (Not the actual photo)

Image credits: KIRO 7

Lee explained that the man had told her, “Nobody’s going to miss you,” before he threw his coffee, a comment she understood to be a threat.

“Disrespect and violence are two different things. I can handle the disrespect. The violence, that’s where the line is crossed,” the worker told KIRO 7.

“It’s one thing to yell, it’s one thing to get mad, it’s one thing to even be outside of your car and try to threaten me. But to actually have the action behind it, it changed things for me where I was like, ‘Oh no.'”

Emma Lee explained that the man told her, “Nobody’s going to miss you” during the verbal altercation

Image credits: KIRO 7

Image credits: KIRO 7

The barista then grabbed a hammer and smashed it into the man’s windshield.

The customer reportedly drove off but refused to leave the premises, leading Lee to call the police.

“The police came, and they got him to leave. It was understood that what happened is he assaulted me, and I responded,” she explained.

The man reportedly became aggressive after he found out that the coffee he had ordered was too expensive

Image credits: KIRO 7

“Disrespect and violence are two different things. I can handle the disrespect. The violence, that’s where the line is crossed,” the worker said

Image credits: KIRO 7

Image credits: KIRO 7

Speaking on the local broadcast, Lee encouraged other women to stand up for themselves against instances of assault.

“I know so many women that haven’t defended themselves in situations they definitely should have and could have because we know that the repercussion, more likely than not, is going to fall on the woman that responds to the violence than the initial violence inflicted.

“At what point are we told we’re supposed to just wait for it to get worse?”

No arrests have been made following the incident.

Many people supported Lee for standing up for herself after being threatened

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