A barista at a Starbucks location in the U.K. has lost his job and is being investigated by police for alleged assault following the release of a viral video of his meltdown over seemingly being misgendered.
Video of the altercation has racked up millions of views on Twitter and shows an employee who is reportedly transgender screaming at a female customer to leave.
In the video, the man refers to the customer as a “Karen” while also calling her “transphobic.”
The woman, who has not been identified, stood her ground and demanded the man stop yelling at her.
“You do not know me,” she said.
“You’re calling me a man!” the employee screamed. “You’re being transphobic, Karen, now get out!”
Transgender Starbucks Employee screams at woman for misgendering him, then proceeds to violently assault a man filming the altercation.
Is this an acceptable way for staff to behave @StarbucksUK ? ☕️ pic.twitter.com/NPDjrYYSKG
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) May 7, 2023
The woman was hesitant to leave without a refund.
The Starbucks employee then demanded she leave and accused her of “trespassing.”
At that point, the person behind the camera uttered something to a person behind him.
“Apparently, we said something transphobic,” the onlooker said.
In the clip, the employee then noticed he was being filmed and lunged at the person who was recording.
Amid a scuffle, the employee could be heard saying, “Give me the phone!”
The man behind the camera responded, “Let go of me.”
The viral clip cuts off at that point.
In a statement to the U.K. Daily Mail, Starbucks confirmed the employee lost his job over his behavior.
The company also issued an apology to the customer for her experience.
“The licensee has confirmed that the partner (employee) no longer works at the company,” the company said. “Starbucks has no tolerance for behaviour of this kind and we are very sorry for the experience that this customer had.”
The situation could get worse for the former employee as police are involved in the controversy.
Police in Hampshire said they received a complaint on April 30 over the employee on the video.
“It is alleged that a staff member became verbally abusive towards a customer within the premises, before assaulting a member of the public who was filming the incident,” the statement said.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.