OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP/WSVN) — Police say charges are pending against a man identified as a firefighter who allegedly spit on and called a 3-year-old child a racial slur in a suburban Kansas City restaurant.
The incident happened Monday night at a Hooters restaurant in Overland Park, Kansas.
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Police haven’t released the suspect’s name, but Sgt. John Lacy told The Kansas City Star that the suspect is a first responder, but didn’t say for which agency. Lacy says the man doesn’t work in Kansas.
Witnesses and family members of the child told police the suspect called the child, who is black, a slur while saying someone should get the child “up off the floor.”
News Release. pic.twitter.com/iY6qaUQq5n
— Overland Park Police (@OverlandPark_PD) March 2, 2018
“He basically said get that little ‘blank’ up off the floor,” a witness told KCTV. “The n-word started to get thrown around.”
The witness said the man then spat at the child. Police were called and the witness said he heard the man say he was a firefighter.
“I didn’t catch what the officers said to him but his immediate response was, ‘It’s ok, I’m a firemen.’ Like that was supposed to blanket cover everything for him,” the witness told KCTV.
Police told KCTV that possible charges could include battery and making a criminal threat.
Police say the boy’s family was at the restaurant celebrating a birthday when he wandered away from the party.
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