McDonald's customer filmed making racist remarks toward Spanish-speaker is fired from job at sheriff's office
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}An employee at a Georgia sheriff’s office has been terminated after he was filmed making racist remarks toward a Spanish-speaking customer at McDonald’s.
The incident, which took place at a Savannah location of the fast-food chain, reportedly occurred over the weekend.
SEE IT: TACO BELL CALLS POLICE ON 'ROWDY ROOSTER'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In footage captured by the other customer, identified as 19-year-old art student Cristina Riofrio by WSAV, the man can be heard telling Riofrio that he’s worked in the United States for years before asking her, “What did you do?”
“[You] come on a f---ing boat,” he added.
Riofrio responds by sarcastically saying she could afford a flight as opposed to a boat trip, but the man in the video attempts to silence her by barking, “Shut up! That’s what you need to do. Shut the f--- up.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Chatham County Sheriff’s Office reportedly terminated the man from his job as a jail maintenance mechanic on Wednesday. (cristinariofri3/Twitter)
Riofrio then informs the man she’s filming and tells him he’s “a racist.”
“I know I am,” he says. “I know I am.”
“You shouldn’t be proud of that, really,” Riofrio says.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Speak English,” he responds.
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS
Riofrio then tells the man she was speaking with her friends, before calling the man a “f---ing racist.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Sure am,” he responds. “That’s me.”
A McDonald’s employee then confronts the man — who was waiting for his order — and asks him to leave, at which point he responds, “Cool. Gimme my food.”
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Riofrio, speaking with WSAV, said she was speaking Spanish with some friends when the man began making offensive remarks.
"[The Chatham County Sheriff’s Office] has no tolerance for this type of behavior and will not allow any person to knowingly be mistreated.”
“I wish I could have said a lot of things, but at that time I was really mad and I couldn’t even speak,” Riofrio said. She added that she’s proud of her heritage — she was born in California to Ecuadorian immigrants — and that she’s not going to let this man’s remarks deter her from speaking Spanish when she chooses.
“In America, I can speak F---ING Spanish if I want to,” she wrote in a Twitter post containing the video clip.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A spokesperson for the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed to WSAV that the man, whom they identified as a jail maintenance mechanic named Walter Browning, was terminated, as the department has “no tolerance for this type of behavior and will not allow any person to knowingly be mistreated.”