Staffers at a popular beachfront restaurant were forced to restrain an apparently intoxicated man who allegedly broke a chair and attacked an employee as well as two children.
The staffers at Eaton’s Beach in Weirsdale on Tuesday afternoon held down 45-year-old Daniel Paul McCaw until Marion County sheriff’s deputies arrived on the scene. Several 911 callers had alerted law enforcement about the chaotic scene unfolding at the restaurant at Lake Weir. They said the Leesburg High School employee was “out of control.”
McCaw, who was visibly intoxicated, had been using foul language and disturbing other diners, who summoned a manager, who asked McCaw and other members of his party to leave the restaurant. As they gathered their belongings, McCaw grabbed one of the children in his party. He grabbed and pushed at another child, leaving the children crying and in distress. An employee took one of the children away from McCaw, who stands 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 170 pounds. Apparently enraged, McCaw threw a metal chair, causing it to break.
McCaw punched a restaurant employee, knocking him down the stairs. McCaw pursued the employee down the stairs and straddled him. Fellow restaurant staffers pounced on McCaw and restrained him until deputies arrived and put him in handcuffs. He claimed he acted in “self defense.”
The report indicated that McCaw takes klonopin which causes “increased intoxication” when mixed with alcohol.
He was arrested on multiple charges of battery, child abuse and disorderly intoxication. He was booked at the Marion County Jail on $14,000 bond.
