Waterloo Regional Police have launched an investigation into a video that appears to show a man living with disabilities being aggressively kicked out of a Kitchener restaurant after an apparent dispute over his service dog.
“We can confirm that we are aware of the video and members of our General Investigations Unit are currently investigating,” police told CityNews.
Police say the incident took place on Wednesday, November 10, at around 6:40 p.m. at Milton’s restaurant in the area of King Street East and Fairway Road South.
A four and a half minute video of the incident was posted on Facebook Wednesday by Jeff Roy, who writes in the video description: “I just experienced this at Milton’s restaurant in Kitchener Ontario. You see both owners refuse and dismiss these paying customers (sic) because they rejected the service dog … “
CityNews has not been able to verify what happened before the video began, or what led to the situation getting worse.
Jeff Roy’s brother Alex was also at the restaurant when the altercation got out of hand. He tried to intervene while his brother recorded the incident.
He blames the two men, who he said are the owners of the establishment, for aggravating the situation.
“Throughout this altercation, the client is holding his papers in his right hand, showing that he is a legal service dog… and they just didn’t care,” he said.
CityNews has reached out to Milton’s restaurant, but has received no response.
The video begins with two men grabbing the customer near the door while their docile dog, wearing a service vest, watches.
“Leave me alone. Get away from me!” shouts the customer.
“We asked you to go a hundred times, friend,” says one of the men.
“I did nothing wrong, I have a service dog,” replies the customer crying. “You came to me out of nowhere and I asked you who you were.”
The men proceed to yell at him to go away, to which the client replies: “I have your license … I have done nothing wrong.”
The verbal exchange continues, with the men repeatedly telling the client that he is “trespassing” while the client maintains that they have no right to expel him.
Things get physical again when one of the men pounces on the customer and grabs his jacket.
“Stop touching it,” a restaurant customer can be heard pleading. “Leave him alone!”
Then the customer is thrown to the ground and the two men start pulling his legs, trying to drag him away. They stop when the employer opposes their actions.
“Well, we want him out of here,” says one of the men to the customer, who replies, “He has a service dog, you can’t kick someone out for having a service dog.”
A woman claiming to be the client’s aunt commented on the Facebook video, saying, “This is my nephew. He has Asperger’s, OCD, and anxiety. I’m sick …”
When asked by someone else how she was doing after the incident, she said she was “very shocked. He stuttered and his heart raced. It has marks and bruises all over it. “
Alex Roy confirms how scared the customer looked.
“I was terrified,” he said. “He was really scared throughout the entire process and we felt terribly.
“His body language, he was trying to create separation the whole time. He didn’t want to fight. He literally wanted to get to his dog and find out what was going on. I definitely think it was the owners who were the aggressors for sure. “
Police say their investigation is ongoing.
Reference-toronto.citynews.ca