A cashier at a McDonald's on West Fourth Street in Manhattan was captured on video savagely beating two female customers with a metal rod on Oct. 13, 2011. (Photo: CBS 2)

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — A McDonald’s cashier jailed for beating two irate customers with a metal rod (click here for video) says he was only trying to defend himself.

Rayon McIntosh was arrested Oct. 13 after a wild fight inside a McDonald’s in the Greenwich Village neighborhood in Manhattan.

Video recorded by a customer showed two furious women vaulting a counter to attack McIntosh after some sort of dispute.

McIntosh grabbed a metal bar and fought back with savage force, continuing to deliver crushing blows even after the women were incapacitated on the floor.

McIntosh tells the New York Daily News in a jailhouse interview published Saturday that he acted to protect himself.

He says the women came in angry, and he was just trying to keep things calm when they “attacked for no reason.”

One of the women has a fractured skull.

McIntosh, 31, was arrested and charged with two counts of felony assault and criminal possession of a weapon while the two women were charged with menacing, disorderly conduct and trespassing.

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