Assaulted At Work By Another Employee

Location: Louisiana

TL;DR: I was assaulted at work by an employee who then pulled a knife on another employee while fleeing. She was arrested and charged with two counts. What are the next steps? I don't feel safe at work anymore and I'm sure there's a court case I need to get ready for too.

Long version: I'm the general manager of a fast-food place. The operations manager scheduled an interview for this girl a couple of weeks ago, and she seemed great. She was really sweet, and I thought she would be a good fit on the team. The position was for a delivery driver.

On day one, she came in with a completely different personality but the shift went fine. On day three, she came in and told me she didn't need me to tell her what deliveries to take anymore and that she could do it on her own, but that's not how it works. I route all the drivers, and always have. I told her that, and she said, "Oh, okay." I thought that was that, but a day later, she's emailing the operations manager saying that I'm not being fair in routing the deliveries. Honestly, I really don't know why she thinks that because she was actually doing really well, and I made sure to tell her she was doing great and moving deliveries quickly. She was neck and neck with the other drivers. So, she thinks I'm unfair for whatever reason.

We had two days off, then came back to work, and we were getting busy. I assigned her an order, and she said, "I'd rather take this other order because I know the place." I said, "But that one's not up first and is going in the opposite direction of the one you're up next to take." The address was wrong on the receipt, and I tried to tell her what building she was supposed to go to, but she still ended up going to the wrong building. She came back in and threw the order at me as I was on the phone with a customer and demanded I fix the ticket. Then she went to the office and stopped working.

I went back there to tell her that, 1. I am the one in charge here, and she will not come in and make demands of me, and 2. She needs to get back on the road and take deliveries. She started arguing about how I'm being unfair and that she's in contact with my managers to do something about it. I told her i wasn't being unfair and following the orders as they were received but she wasn't having it and started yelling. After she started screaming in the store and causing a scene, I told her she needed to leave the store now. She refused to leave, and I threatened to get the cops. I guess hearing that triggered her, and she sucker-punched me in the eye twice. I fell back into the corner of the cooler and have a gnarly bruise on my back. She tried to run out, and another employee tried to stop her, but she pulled a knife, so he backed up. Luckily, there was a cop in the building, and he tackled her out the door, and she was arrested. We pressed charges, and I know she got two charges: one for battery for the punch and the other for the knife (I don't remember what he said that charge was).

I haven't returned to work in two days, and truthfully, I really don't want to go back. The location we are in is a downtown area and kind of sketchy. I was already on edge daily, but there's a police station nearby that made me feel a little better. Obviously, my bosses want me to return ASAP, but I really, really, really, really don't want to go back. I'm so lost. I don't know what to do and don't think I'll ever feel safe in this position again. How am I supposed to manage people if they can just sucker-punch me out of nowhere? And she had a knife on her, too! She could have stabbed me or any other employee. Oh, and side note, I googled her name after she assaulted me, and she had an attempted murder charge already. Like, omg, we dropped the ball so hard, and of course, we don't do background checks; it's fast food.

I went to an urgent care to get X-rays on my face and back, they came out good but I can barely move or lift my left arm because of this bruise on my back. The corner of the cooler went right into my shoulder blade and there's a long bruise going down my back. I have pictures of all the bruising and every single second of this incident was caught on the store's security camera and already sent to police for the case.

So, what's next? What do I do about my job, and not only that, but I'm going to have a court case I have to deal with on top of that? Can I get a restraining order? Is it possible she was released? I think I need a lawyer, but I am flat broke.