Police have arrested a 55-year-old man after he allegedly pulled a gun on a group of Somali-AMerican teens at a McDonald’s in Minnesota on Monday, in an incident that has raised concerns about how staff handled the situation.
The incident was captured in a video that circulated widely on Twitter Monday night.
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Lloyd Edward Johnson of Eden Prairie, Minn. was arrested on a charge of probable cause second-degree assault and held at Hennepin County Jail in Minneapolis on Wednesday, WCCO reported.
He was jailed in connection with an incident that saw him allegedly come into conflict with the teens at a McDonald’s in the city after the group went there following a trip to the library, the Star Tribune reported.
Jihan Abdullahi said she and a friend were trying to pay for a meal using a smartphone app (Apple Pay, according to one report) when the man allegedly said, “you were paying with EBT (electronic benefit transfer), that’s why it didn’t work.”
Abdullahi said, “‘just because I’m black you think my friends and I live under EBT?’ and he said, ‘yes.'”
The teens confronted the man and then backed away, saying he had a gun, in a heated exchange captured on video.
The video then showed a McDonald’s employee ordering “everybody out” of the restaurant before a second employee entered the fray.
Teens could be heard saying, “he has a gun” before the second employee said, “I understand that! I want everyone out of my store, now!”
“He has a gun,” a teen affirmed.
“I don’t give a f***, get out of my store now!” the employee responded.
A customer then confronted that employee, saying, “hey, don’t send them out there when the dude just pulled a f****** gun on them!”
Once again, she said, “I want everybody out of my store.”
The employee then went behind the counter.
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Video then captured a second exchange with the first employee, who said, “I didn’t blame you, I never said, I never said, I never said I’m blaming, I said he pulled out a gun for a reason, I didn’t say why.”
The manner in which the incident was handled raised concerns among social media users, with one saying, “the manager needs to get fired. She just released all the anger and tension that she had built up on these customers.”
A statement from the owner of the McDonald’s location said the restaurant was working with the authorities and treating the matter seriously, WCCO reported.
“Nothing is more important than the safety and security of our customers and employees,” the statement from Paul Ostergaard said.