Police are investigating a viral video that shows a white man pulling a gun on a group of Black and Muslim teens in a McDonald’s in Eden Prarie, Minnesota.
Farida Osman, who’s 16 and recorded the video, said she and her friends walked to the McDonald’s from a nearby library down on Tuesday. There were 10 boys in the group, and four girls wearing hijabs. While the boys found a place for them to all sit together, the girls got in line to order food.
When one of the girls, Jihan Abdullahi, got to the front of the line and put in her order, she had issues with paying with Apple Pay. Amal Mohammed, 17, tried to help by using her Apple Pay, but it also wouldn’t go through. A white man in a camo sweatshirt then began to complain about the teens holding up the line.
The manager told the girls they’d have to get back in line and let other people go first. As they went to the back of the line, the man made a comment that they must have been trying to use EBT, or Electronic Benefit Transfer, a welfare program.
“Jihan said, ‘Just because I’m Black does not mean I use EBT,’” Osman recounted to BuzzFeed News. The two began to argue, and the man started to approach the girls. “The guy got close to my face and his fists were kinda balled up and I felt threatened,” said Mohammed. She called for her friends, and the appearance of the male teens made the man even more aggressive. When one of the boys asked, “Why are you being physical?” the man reportedly pulled out a gun, laughed, and ran outside.
https://twitter.com/snatchingedgess/status/1064712479031332865
In the video, while the teens are still running for cover, the McDonald’s manager comes out and starts yelling at them to get out of the store. When they tell her about the man with the gun, she says, “I don’t give a fuck, get out of my store now!”
Another customer yells at the manager, “Don’t send them out there when the dude just pulled a fucking gun on them. You better fucking call the cops.” Eventually, one of the employees called the police, though by the time they arrived, the man with the gun was gone.
“I can say that many of my friends have experienced stuff like this,” Mohammed said to BuzzFeed News. “It happens to too many Somalis in Minnesota.”
Eden Prairie Police said in a statement that they are investigating to “determine if a crime was committed.”
H/T BuzzFeed News