You can’t even eat a meal in peace nowadays.
An Annville, Pa., restaurant owner is accused of kicking a local college student out of his restaurant in the middle of his meal, calling the student a racial slur and then quipping that “Trump’s president ... so I can say what I want,” Penn Live reports.
According to the report, Rickey Lee Bugg Jr., a junior member of the Lebanon Valley College men’s basketball team, was eating with a friend at Just Wing It around 1:30 a.m. Sunday when the restaurant manager came out and allegedly said, “I own three restaurants, and I don’t need you niggers’ money.”
Bugg, caught off guard, requested his money back so he could leave. A waitress agreed to refund the cost of the meal. However, the owner confronted the students again as they were leaving.
Bugg admitted that he became frustrated.
“I flipped a few chairs,” he said. He acknowledged that he yelled at the owner, “That’s not the way to treat people!”
That was when Bugg said the manager told him, “Trump’s president now, so I can say what I want.”
Bugg told Penn Live that he and his friend were the only people in the restaurant when the incident happened, but there was another group of LVC students there when they left.
Bugg said that he had eaten at Just Wing It many times before but had never seen the manager.
“We weren’t being loud; we were just sitting there, watching TV,” Bugg said.
Bugg gave a statement to police regarding the incident and also reported it to LVC.
LVC spokesperson Molly O’Brien-Foelsch said that students have “cooperated fully with the police,” and that an investigation is in progress.
“LVC rejects all hatred and bias. Racist attitudes in no way reflect the culture of our campus,” she said. “The campus community, trustees, public, and township and community leaders have been given updates, and the college is partnering with them to identify ways to strengthen the community.”
Gregory Krikorian, the LVC vice president of student affairs and dean of students, also released the following statement about the incident:
I am sad to have to report that an incident involving LVC students in an off-campus restaurant in Annville occurred during the early hours of this morning. It has been reported that an employee at the establishment made racially derogatory and offensive comments toward a male black student. Other students were present. When the situation escalated, the Annville Police responded and documented the events.
Read more at Penn Live.