The owner of a London, Ont. restaurant says police are investigating after a co-owner was captured on video yelling obscenities at customers.
Nuriddin Amruddin, the owner of Bamyan Afghan Cuisine on Richmond Row, said his partner who had been involved in the incident has now been fired and asked to stay off the premises.
The video, first published on the social media site @Londonblo.g and making rounds online showed the employee yelling obscenities and saying “I don’t want to serve you guys,” and telling the people recording to “get out.” He references Pakistan as their country of origin and says he “hates” them.
In the video, a woman is also heard yelling, “This is a hate crime.”
CBC News has not spoken to the people who filmed the video. A family friend said Tuesday afternoon that they did not want to speak to media. CBC News was unable to contact the employee in the video at the time of publication.
Hadayat Beedar, chef manager at Bamyan, said phones were ringing “off the hook” after the video began circulating online with many people calling to threaten the store staff.
“Some people are calling in concerned, some people are calling to support us, others are simply just threatening … a lot of cussing, swearing,” said Beedar. “They think it’s me when I answer the phone.”
Beedar said the incident involved the now former co-owner and 3 customers, a husband, wife and son, and that it took place on Saturday between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m, when neither he nor the owner were present.
WATCH | Heated exchange between staff member and employee caught on video:
Video captured on a mobile device at Bamyan Afghan Cuisine in downtown London, Ont. shows a tense exchange between an employee and a customer. 0:15
Police now investigating footage
London police confirmed they have visited the restaurant but as of Tuesday they had not received a formal complaint related to the incident.
Deputy Chief Trish McIntyre said London police were notified about the video circulating on social media on Monday. While no complainant has come forward, McIntyre said officers took a more “supportive” approach in this case.
“There’s a huge impact to that video, not only for the store owner, but for the community and specifically the racialized community involved,” said McIntyre.
Officers visited the restaurant on Tuesday, to speak to the business owner about the incident, saying Amruddin was “incredibly upset,” and “remorseful” of the incident.
But police still do not have the full story, she says, as they have not spoken to the individual that recorded the interaction.
“It’s that context piece we’re missing. So what was happening there? We know the reaction. We know those are offensive comments to make. We know they’ve had a huge impact to the community. But what was happening there?” McIntyre said.
McIntyre said police are still in the process of collecting additional video footage, if available.
“We’ll try our best to kind of piece that together. So once we have that information, then we can better assess,” she said.
Twelve minutes of security camera video has been passed on to police but the restaurant’s owner said it has no audio.
Both Amruddin and Beedar say they do not condone that kind of behaviour at their establishment.
“[But] those kinds of behaviours should not be tolerated, and neither are we going to allow that to happen. We’ll make sure that never ever happens again.”
