A 24-year-old LaGrange man was arrested Thursday evening after Kinston police said he assaulted a McDonald's employee and threatened to shoot several others, then tried to escape through the restaurant's drive-thru window before officers caught him on foot. Arkim Pender now faces six misdemeanor charges stemming from the incident at the McDonald's on West Vernon Avenue.
According to the Kinston Police Department, dispatchers reported that Pender had assaulted an employee and was threatening to shoot multiple workers at the restaurant. KPD C-Squad officers were dispatched to the McDonald's at 110 W. Vernon Avenue, where they pursued Pender after he fled on foot upon seeing them. As reported by Neuse News, officers arriving on scene found Pender shirtless and attempting to climb through the drive-thru window before he took off running.
Officers eventually caught up with Pender and took him into custody. No firearm was recovered during the arrest, despite the initial dispatch reports of a threat to shoot employees — a discrepancy that Neuse News notes could raise questions for investigators about the exact statements made during the disturbance. Pender was transported to the Lenoir County Jail following his arrest.
Six Charges, Four Distinct Offenses
Pender was charged with assault on a female, four counts of communicating threats, resisting a public officer, and second-degree trespass. Under North Carolina law, assault on a female by an adult male is codified as a Class A1 misdemeanor under General Statute § 14-33(c)(2), the most serious misdemeanor classification in the state and one carrying a maximum sentence of 150 days in jail, according to the Carolina Attorneys firm.
The communicating threats charges fall under General Statute § 14-277.1, classified as a Class 1 misdemeanor punishable by up to 120 days in jail plus a discretionary fine, per the Beaver Courie law firm. That statute requires the threat to be one that causes a reasonable person to believe it would actually be carried out, according to King Law Offices. Resisting, delaying or obstructing a public officer is a Class 2 misdemeanor under General Statute § 14-223, carrying penalties of up to 60 days in jail and fines up to $1,000, while second-degree trespass under General Statute § 14-159.13 is a Class 3 misdemeanor that typically results in fines rather than active jail time for first-time offenders, per the Olsinski Law Firm.
A Broader Pattern at the Drive-Thru Window
Pender lives in LaGrange, a town roughly 10 miles west of Kinston along the U.S. Route 70 corridor, according to Lenoir County's official municipal data. The incident lands amid broader scrutiny of violent crime trends in the county: a 2025 Lenoir County Violence Profile from the North Carolina Department of Public Safety found a regional violent crime rate of 579 per 100,000 residents, with aggravated assault making up 72.2% of violent crimes and an overall 20% year-over-year increase.
Within Kinston itself, police data presented to the city council earlier this year showed overall violent crime had fallen early in 2026, even as disturbance and crisis-response calls remained a frequent operational priority for the department, Neuse News reported in April.
Incidents like this one also echo wider concerns about safety for fast-food workers nationally. A 2019 report from the National Employment Law Project, cited by CBS News, found that fast-food employees face high rates of customer violence and harassment, often concentrated around extended hours and drive-thru windows that offer limited physical separation between staff and the public. Federal data cited by security firm Circadian Risk showed fast-food workers recorded 76,700 nonfatal workplace injuries in 2021, the highest total of any restaurant sector.
It remains unclear whether Pender has an initial court date scheduled in Lenoir County District Court, or whether bond conditions or a no-contact order tied to the McDonald's location have been issued. It's also not known whether the Kinston franchise plans any additional security measures at the drive-thru following the incident.
