A group of Five Guys employees who refused to serve members of an Alabama police force has been fired or suspended.
The incident took place on Tuesday when three officers of the Daphne Police
Department entered a Five Guys restaurant located in a shopping center,
according to a local media report detailing the allegations.
The officers say they returned to their vehicles to retrieve masks to comply with the location's mask requirement, FOX 10 reported. Once back inside, they allege multiple employees turned their backs to them and refused to serve them.
"Five
Guys and the Daphne, AL franchise want to thank the Daphne Police
Department for their support in working together toward a resolution.
The actions the Daphne, AL franchise have taken include termination and
suspension of the employees involved," Five Guys said Friday in its local Facebook page of Daphne, Ala.
Five Guys did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment.
The
Daphne store added in its Facebook statement it was temporarily closing
the location "for further education and customer service training with a representative from the Daphne Police Department."
For
its part, the Daphne Police Department released a statement Wednesday saying it "appreciates the outpouring of support from our community and
from supporters of Law Enforcement across the country. We also want to
thank Five Guys on a corporate and local level. We have been working
through this situation and there has been total cooperation."
Police in the U.S. has been facing higher scrutiny as millions of
Americans gathered in cities large and small in to denounce police
brutality and racial bias in response to the Memorial Day death of
George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who was pinned to the ground by
Minneapolis officers after being accused of passing a fake $20 bill at a
grocery store.