A Lexington, Kentucky, woman is accused of grabbing an AR-15-style rifle from her trunk and aiming it at a KFC worker after growing frustrated with a slow drive-thru order on May 11. She had left the drive-thru lane and parked in the restaurant's lot before pulling the rifle from her trunk and pointing it at the employee in what police describe as a threatening manner, then driving away. No shots were fired, and no employees or customers were injured.
WKRC identified the woman as 32-year-old Nayda Rivera Roman, according to WKRC. Roman was charged with first-degree wanton endangerment and arrested July 28, the station reported, connecting her to the confrontation weeks after it happened.
A Two-Month Gap Before Charges Were Filed
Other reporting adds a wrinkle: Law and Crime listed Roman's age as 33, not 32, and reported she was booked into the Fayette County Detention Center on July 27. That's a day before the arrest date cited in the earlier report, though both accounts place the booking more than two months after the incident. The outlet's account of the confrontation itself matches the broader narrative, describing how Roman left the drive-thru lane, parked in the lot and pulled the rifle from her trunk before pointing it at the employee on Richmond Road.
Investigators say they linked Roman to the scene by matching the vehicle and license plate seen on KFC surveillance video to body-camera footage from earlier, unrelated traffic stops involving the same car, according to Baller Alert. Once they had a name, the outlet reports, the KFC employee who was threatened identified Roman in a photo lineup.
The Legal Line Between a Class D and a Class C Felony
Under Kentucky Revised Statutes § 508.060, first-degree wanton endangerment covers conduct that shows extreme indifference to human life and creates a substantial risk of death or serious injury, according to Larmour Law Offices. As charged, the offense is a Class D felony, punishable by one to five years in prison and fines of up to $10,000.
The legislative record for Senate Bill 132 includes language making first-degree wanton endangerment a Class C felony carrying five to 10 years in prison when a defendant actually discharges a firearm during the offense. Because Roman did not discharge the rifle, she faces the lesser Class D charge instead. It remains unknown whether Roman was legally permitted to carry the rifle, and no information has surfaced about what, if anything, has happened in court since her booking.
Violence Against Frontline Workers Is a Documented Problem
Nationally, violent acts caused 740 fatal occupational injuries in 2023, including 458 workplace homicides, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Management occupations accounted for 9% of all U.S. workplace homicides between 2015 and 2019, with restaurants and hotels among the examples, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Researchers at the UCLA Labor Center have found that fast-food workers face elevated risk of physical threats, verbal aggression and customer assault compared with other commercial sectors, pointing to drive-thru configurations and lone-worker shifts as factors that can turn a routine dispute dangerous. Whether KFC has changed any security measures at the Richmond Road location since May remains unclear.
