NFL star, and former Lake View High School athelete, Darius Leonard was featured on TMZ, and tells his story about being racially profiled, and kicked out of a Chipotle' , in Florence, SC. Since this story was shared, the manager at Florence Chipotle' has been suspended, during the course of their internal investigation.
According to a statement, from Chipotle:
"We are currently investigating the incident involving Darius Leonard in Florence, South Carolina. We have a zero tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind and we have suspended our manager while we conduct a thorough investigation. I’ve personally reached out to Darius and I’m committed to ensuring the appropriate action is taken once the investigation concludes.
Brian Niccol,
Chairman and CEO, Chipotle"
Darius Leonard posted a lengthy video, and gives very specific details about the incident.
In the viral video, Darius Leonard explained the incident as follows: "Me, three other Black guys and a mixed woman. We sitting there casually eating. I mean we are away from everybody. And toward the end of our meal. You know, the manager come up. Not knowing why the manager walking up. You know, he come up with a terrible attitude. Asking us, do we have a problem or something. I mean, we're all lost. Trying to figure out what's going on. He's saying that White guy said that we was verbally abusing him talking trash to him. And you know, it was basically a lie. And we got kicked out of Chitpole because of that. And they said they was going to call the police. And they wanted to call the police on us. And you know, that's what being Black in America is right now. Us, not even doing anything wrong. Going out to eat with your family. Just trying to spend a little bit of quality time. And you can't even enjoy eating anymore. And we talking about Black Lives Matter and for the guy to look at us and lie. And laugh in our face as we talk out,"
In the TMZ article, you have to click the video, to get his whole story. The video is almost 5 minutes in length, but shares his frustration about the social issues in America today, particularly with respect to racial disproportionality, in the criminal justice system.