Should McDonald's Pay Worker's Comp to Shot Employee?

DH and I were watching CNN this morning and saw an alarming story about an attack on a McDonald’s patron.  Apparently last year a young woman was being assaulted by a man while in a McDonald’s.  An employee of the restaurant came to her aid and pushed the attacker away from her.  The man then went to his car and retrieved a gun and shot the employee several times before fleeing.  The McDonald’s employee has incurred over $300,000 in medical bills as a result of his injuries.  McDonald’s Corporation has denied his Worker’s Compensation claim saying that he ignored training to not get involved in altercations that occur on the restaurant premisses.

My question is would it have been better to allow the woman to be attacked and possibly killed by the man on the restaurant grounds without trying to stop her assailant?  I believe there is a moral issue involved here as far as coming to the aid of the weak.  Should corporate policy trump a person’s conscience and moral obligation to their fellow man or woman?  Yes, he could have waited for the police to arrive, but what would have happened to the woman in the meantime.  He found out the hard way that the man had a gun, but the assailant could have used the gun on the woman and others as well anyway.  So should this employee be in essense punished because he pushed first and was shot later instead of waiting to have been caught in a potential crossfire?

What are your thoughts?

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