A St. Paul, Minnesota man says he was beaten by the bouncer at the restaurant Barrio after he kissed his boyfriend at the bar.
Said Ben Sanson-Ngiratregd to KSTP: “The whole time it was happening I really thought I could die. A guy came behind me and grabbed my shirt. He's like ‘You can't do that in here.' He was calling me a very derogatory name for me being gay. I told him to get his hands off of me and then he just started punching me in my face. I have bumps and bruises all over my body, I was thrown down cement stairs, dragged across the floor.”
The restaurant released a statement saying the employee was acting in self-defense: “We take any allegation that one of our guests was mistreated very seriously. We don't tolerate any form of discrimination or inappropriate conduct by anyone associated with our company. We are continuing to investigate the incident that took place early Sunday morning at Barrio Lowertown, but based on what we know so far – the account of our security guard as well as those of a number of witnesses and our review of our security footage – we believe our colleague acted only to defend himself and to ensure the safety of our other guests when physically attacked. At no time did any Barrio employee or anyone else associated with our restaurant punch a guest during this incident. Reports that two employees were involved in this altercation are incorrect.”
Police are investigating.
