Fremont man says he was attacked by DoorDash delivery employee at Denny's

FREMONT, Calif. (KGO) -- A Fremont man has broken bones and missing teeth after he says a food delivery service employee attacked him at a Denny's.

"I feel like I look like a... monster right now," said Frederick Ibonie through tears. Ibonie is missing three teeth, has a fractured nose and palate and ten stitches in his lip.

"We should stand up for each other, but the world is a dangerous place," he said.

On Sunday around 2 a.m., Ibonie was waiting for his food at the Denny's on Mowry Avenue in Fremont.

He says he heard a DoorDash delivery employee berate Denny's employees for not having a to-go order ready.

Ibonie, 34, who is a waiter himself at a barbecue restaurant down the street, felt compelled to defend Denny's servers. So, he says he stood up and told the man, "you need to calm down. It's Denny's, these people are working their butts off."

Ibonie says the man then shoved another customer, punched him in the face and ran away.

When asked how he knew the man was a DoorDash employee, Ibonie said, "because he was saying he was for DoorDash and was here to get the food and was being verbally aggressive about it to the staff of the Denny's."

Fremont police say they have a surveillance image of the suspect, but are still investigating and are not confident Ibonie's attacker was a DoorDash employee because a Denny's manager told police there were multiple to-go orders at the time of the attack.

But, DoorDash sent ABC7 this statement:

"At DoorDash, we take the safety of our community extremely seriously. We are investigating the alleged incident and will take action as appropriate, including deactivating the Dasher from our platform."

"I'm horrified," exclaimed Paula Ibonie, Frederick's mother. "He's a nice guy who cares about everybody."

Pauls says her son moved home to help take care of her husband and his father, who was viciously assaulted ten years ago and has a brain injury as a result.

She says she spoke to a DoorDash employee on the phone Sunday, who she found unhelpful.

She says she wants her son's attacker to be held accountable. "He should go to jail. You don't get to do that to people."

Doctors told Frederick he needs to see a Maxillofacial surgeon and dentist right away, but Frederick doesn't have health insurance and can't work right now because of his injuries. So, he's very concerned about how to pay for and proceed with his treatment.

Meanwhile, police say they will be looking for more surveillance from surrounding businesses on Monday, to try and track down whoever is responsible.

A GoFund Me page has been set up to help pay for Ibonie's medical care.