Three women working at an assisted living and memory care facility in North Carolina were arrested Friday after allegedly running a fight club where they encouraged elderly patients with dementia to fight each other, police said.
Police received a report of abuse at the Danby House in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, back in June, WGHP reports. At the time, two workers at the assisted living facility were accused of letting residents fight each other, and even encouraging it, according to police. One employee was also accused of shoving a resident, police said.
Police announced Friday that three former employees at Danby House are now facing charges stemming from the June report.
According to court documents, the three women facing charges of assaulting disabled persons are Marilyn Latish McKey, Tonacia Yvonne Tyson and Taneshia Deshawn Jordan.
McKey, 32, is accused of recording an incident in which she pushed a 73-year-old female resident into her room, according to arrest warrants. Tyson, 20, is accused of recording a coworker assaulting a female resident and not reporting or stopping the assault. Arrest warrants also indicate that McKey and Tyson are accused of witnessing a fight between two female residents and doing nothing to prevent it.
Jordan, 26, allegedly witnessed a coworker assault a female resident and did nothing to stop or report the incident, arrest warrants show. She is also accused of taking video of a fight between two female residents, and even encouraging them to fight, according to arrest warrants.
According to a report from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, the alleged fight between the two elderly residents led to “one resident being strangled with her face turning red." The video of the fight was shared on social media, the Charlotte Observer reports. Staff members can be heard on the video saying, “punch her in the face," the Observer reports.
One of the residents could be heard saying, “let go, help me, help me, let go,” while the staff continued to watch the fight, according to the Winston-Salem Journal. The Journal also reports that the two women fighting in the video were housed in the facility's special care unit because of their dementia.
The three women "were terminated immediately in June when community management was alerted to this situation," according to statement from Danby House to WGHP.
