DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) — Two men in a group outside of a restaurant in Delray Beach became verbally abusive to the staff, and as video that has gone viral shows, they also hurled racial slurs at the employees.
Louis Grayson, the owner of the Ramen Lab Eatery on Northeast Second Avenue, said he asked the men to leave as they were closing, just before midnight, Thursday.
“I ask them to ‘eat your pizza from a different restaurant elsewhere’ while we’re trying to close, and that was about it,” said Grayson.
Grayson said he and his staff had already packed up the outdoor seating when the men started making themselves at home.
“We were just trying to clean up our table and bring everything in from outside, and the guys started to unstack the chairs and just randomly wanted to sit down and eat their pizza,” he said.
When employees asked the group to leave, the men refused.
The cellphone video captured what happened next.
“I’m asking you nicely, bro,” Grayson told the men.
“You’re a [expletive] sissy [expletive],” one of the men replied.
But the men were not only rude. The footage shows the verbal abuse was racially charged.
“I asked you nicely to leave. That’s about it. I asked you nicely to leave,” Grayson said.
“Take your China flu and shove it up your [expletive],” one of the men replied.
“OK, well done, sir,” said Grayson.
“A******. You Taiwanese chink [expletive],” one of the men said.
“Well done, sir,” said Grayson.
The men eventually walked away, but not before they hurled more slurs.
“All right, coronavirus. Go [expletive] yourself, corona. I hope you [expletive] die of corona,” one of the men said.
“Why are you leaving, sir? I thought you wanted to stay,” said Grayson.
Grayson said he posted the video to show a problem Asian Americans face, a problem that, he said, is getting worse.
“The whole point of the post was just so people can see that this still goes on every day,” he said. “I grew up with it, too, but this is another level.”
Grayson said he has talked to police. No official report or charges have been filed.
7News has reached out to one of the men recorded in the video, but as of Monday night has been unable to reach him.
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