Amanda Granlund still vividly recalls that busy Sunday back in 2014 when a patron walked into her Golden Nugget restaurant in Ravenswood and ordered breakfast.
Nothing seemed amiss as Emmanuel Aranda sat quietly and finished his meal.
But then he asked restaurant staff for permission to call his bank after his card was declined, Granlund said.
Things quickly spiraled when a customer sitting at the counter asked a server in Spanish to be moved to a table because Aranda smelled so bad he couldn’t finish his meal.
“That’s when (Aranda) got up and he said, ‘I know what you just said. You said that I smell like s-—.’ And he picked up a plate and cracked him in the head with it,”...”
A self-described news junkie, Granlund said she heard about the attack on the news soon after it occurred last Friday, but she didn’t make the connection until Sunday when a co-worker mentioned the Golden Nugget incident.
“She said, ‘I heard on the news he has ties to Chicago and I believe they said the Golden Nugget.’
And I said, ‘Oh, my God! Wouldn’t that be crazy if it was the same guy we had in here?”
After seeing Aranda’s mug shot, she knew it was the same man.
A longtime server at the Golden Nugget on West Lawrence Avenue, Granlund said the incident with Aranda was the most harrowing she’d ever faced there.
“I’ve been here for 20 years at this particular location and I’ve never, ever been that frightened,” said Granlund, 42, the daughter of a former Chicago police officer.
After attacking the customer, Aranda quickly looked through his backpack and pulled out a knife, she said. “And he went to go stab the guy. And the guy was thankfully so thin that he was able to dodge (the blows).
He did it about four or five times.”
Aranda began running around the restaurant, brandishing the knife and yelling, “Someone’s gonna die,” Granlund said.
Some patrons ran for the kitchen while others put their children under tables to shield them.
Granlund’s boss was already on the phone with police and warned Aranda that officers were on their way, prompting Aranda to flee the restaurant.
Officers arrested Aranda a short time later.
I have children (teens) that have started working, and so far none works in jobs where they’d encounter random crazies. I’d rather they played video games all day than be exposed to the unassimilated garbage that wages war on normals.