MIAMI (WSVN) - A customer at a Burger King in the Brickell section of Miami said he was the victim of a hateful assault from an employee of the fast food restaurant.
Speaking on cellphone her recorded himself, Juan Bermudez said, “I told him that I am part of the LGBTQ community, and he’s like, ‘We don’t serve your kind here.'”
It allegedly happened at around 4 a.m., Friday.
Bermudez said, “He took my phone, then he said, ‘What are you gonna do?’ I said, ‘Nothing, but you need to give me my phone back.’ He said, ‘I’m not giving your phone back.’ I’m like, ‘You better give me my phone back.’ You know what he did? He tried to kill me.”
Bermudez had marks over his neck and chest and said the violence and hateful words stemmed from a dispute over a coupon, when police were called.
Kenia Fallat of the Miami Police Department said, “We arrested the person responsible for grabbing the victim by the neck and charged him with one count of battery. Detectives are looking at it to see indeed if there is a hate crime involved.”
“You’re probably going to lose your job if you haven’t already,” Judge Jeffery M. Kolokhoff told the suspect.
He went from work, to jail, to Miami-Dade bond court.
Bermudez said, “I had two coupons that I wanted to use.”
He documented his experience on Facebook and described what had happened shortly after.
Bermudez said, “I did call him stupid, but I don’t think that justifies anything happened. He’s like, ‘You don’t call me stupid. You don’t call me stupid. How would you like it if I called you (expletive)?'”
Kolokhoff said, “I’m going to order you to stay away from the alleged victim Juan Carlos Bermudez.”
According to Bermudez, police are not yet ready to release the surveillance video from the area.
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