Larry Bruce Mitchell, 66, of 1701 Willow Oak Lane turned himself in Tuesday morning on a charge related to an assault that happened last month at the Steak ‘N Shake on Walnut Avenue. Mitchell turned himself in after seeing a report and surveillance picture of the incident in area media reports.
The incident happened on Sept. 29, shortly after 1 a.m. at the Steak n’ Shake on West Walnut Avenue. Mitchell walked up to the front counter asking to speak to a manager and then walked around to the entrance to the grill area speaking loudly about the lack of service he had received. When the manager asked him to step out of the employee-only area of the restaurant to make his complaint, Mitchell hit her in the face with a stack of papers, believed to be restaurant coupons, before walking out. The suspect then left the parking lot driving backwards onto Tibbs Road in a gray four-door sign, possibly an Oldsmobile.
On Oct. 17, the Dalton Police Department sent a picture from surveillance video of the incident to local media and it was run by multiple outlets. By the next day, the DPD received several anonymous tips identifying Mitchell as the man in the video. After seeing an article in the Dalton Daily Citizen about the incident, Mitchell arranged to turn himself in on one charge of simple assault and bonded out shortly thereafter.