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In addition to firing a manager and suspending an employee who allegedly refused to serve a Florida police officer simply because she was a cop, Arby's announced that it would be giving law enforcement in the area a free combo meal Friday as a sign of its apology.
Earlier this week, Sgt. Jennifer Martin with the Pembroke Pines Police Department pulled up to an Arby's drive-thru. In her police report, she noted that the employee over the microphone was "slightly rude and short with his responses." When she pulled forward to the window to pickup and pay for her order the clerk, identified as Kenneth Davenport, took her credit card, but it was the manager, Angel Mirabal who returned.
Image source: WFOR-TV
"He doesn't want to serve you because you are a police officer," Mirabal told Martin, according to the report filed for informational purposes.
Martin wrote that she told Mirabal this made her uncomfortable and that she no longer wanted to dine at the restaurant.
"Mirabal assured me everything was OK and handed me my food," Martin continued. "Mirabal even laughed as he said he is allowed to refuse to serve me."
Martin said she went into the restaurant to get a refund. There she took Mirabal's contact information but Davenport refused to provide his.
Arby's CEO Paul Brown issued an apology Thursday, saying that the "isolated incident does not represent Arby’s Restaurant Group (ARG) views and Arby’s values. We appreciate all that you do, as well as the hard work and sacrifices of your fellow law enforcement officials in communities across America."
Arby’s spokesman Jason Rollins told the Orlando Sun-Sentinel in an email Thursday that Mirabal, 22, had been fired and Davenport,19, suspended for two days with pay.
Davenport's grandfather, Thomas McCutcheon, spoke out in support of the 19-year-old, saying he was "overwhelmed by all the attention."
“His life is just starting, and a black mark against him is not going to help. He is a shy kid," McCutcheon said, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
Mirabal told WFOR-TV the whole incident was part of a joke gone wrong.
Davenport told the news station he couldn't serve Martin because the restaurant was crowded.
“We don't hate cops,” Davenport said Wednesday to a reporter as he sat in a car . “We don't hate anybody. We're just trying to get people out of the drive-thru.”
He also told the news station he didn't see the point in trying to defend himself further.
"There's no point in talking," he said. "I'm 19. She's an officer and I'm colored."
Watch WFOR's report:
Arby's CEO extended an olive branch to officers in the Dade-Broward metro area Friday, telling them to "simply show up in uniform to receive your free meal compliments of your friends at Arby's."
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