Gay Man Beaten by Shake Shack Employees for Kissing Partner
Video of the attack, which occurred in D.C.'s Dupont Circle, shows multiple employees pursuing and punching the victim.
Employees of a Dupont Circle Shake Shack allegedly pushed a customer out of the restaurant and repeatedly beat him after seeing his boyfriend kiss him.
According to a Metropolitan Police Department incident report, the victim, Christian Dingus, claims he was assaulted by multiple people and pushed to the ground after being forcibly escorted out of the restaurant just before 6 p.m. on Saturday, August 17.
Dingus told NBC Washington News 4 that the dispute started inside. He had gone to the Shake Shack at the corner of 18th and Jefferson Streets NW with his partner and a few friends. They had ordered food but grew impatient as their wait time began to exceed 45 minutes.
When he asked where their food was, an employee responded in an “aggressive” way. His partner pulled him aside to try and defuse the situation.
“And then he kissed me, and then another worker came up and said, ‘Hey, you guys can’t do that here,'” Dingus told News4.
A worker then escorted Dingus’s partner out of Shake Shack and began confronting him aggressively, backed up against an outside wall. Dingus followed them outside, stepping in between his partner and the worker.
“At that point, immediately, without a second, the worker just turned on me, starting attacking me,” Dingus said. “At that point, I think there might have been two or three other workers as well, threw me to the ground.”
He doesn’t remember how long the beating continued but does recall somebody breaking it up and police arriving on the scene.
The attack was partially captured by cell phone video from inside the restaurant.
In the video, two people in black Shake Shack T-shirts, in what appears to be a scrum, push and hit another person. Two other people in black T-shirts soon jump into the scuffle. The victim stumbles for a few steps before falling down and crouching into a fetal position in an effort to protect themselves.
MPD officers were flagged down and responded to a report of an assault near the restaurant. Dingus told police that he was assaulted by multiple people. Dingus, who sustained minor injuries from the attack, was treated for those on scene.
Police say that the primary suspect in the incident claimed that Dingus had placed his hands on his neck, but Dingus argued that he had been defending himself.
No arrests have been made in connection with the incident.
Police have marked a checkbox on the incident report indicating that they believe the attack may be a hate crime, and are investigating it as such.
A Shake Shack spokesperson said the workers accused of being involved in the altercation have been temporarily suspended.
“At Shake Shack, the safety and well-being of our guests and team members are our top priorities, and we have a zero-tolerance policy for any form of violence,” the restaurant said in a statement. “We are fully cooperating with local authorities in their investigation and have suspended the team members involved pending further review. We are committed to taking the appropriate actions based on the findings.”
Dingus told News4 that a woman who was a patron at the location came outside to help him, and another person who recorded the attack offered him video of the incident, including the cell phone video footage, which was posted on social media.
“There was a desire to be violent towards me, and I think it’s very evident in that film,” Dingus told News4, referring to the video clip.
Dingus later went to an emergency room, where he was diagnosed with a concussion and trauma to his jaw. The side of his face was swollen and bruised from the attack.
Dingus doesn’t believe the incident would have occurred had he and his partner been a heterosexual couple. He says the incident — which occurred in Dupont Circle, D.C.’s historically gay neighborhood, long considered a “safe space” for LGBTQ people — has shattered the neighborhood’s reputation in his mind, and has made him more keenly aware of the violence that LGBTQ people can face.
“You hear all the time that this stuff happens, but, you know, I started kind of believing that it didn’t, right?” he told News4. “I’ve been…thinking of progress and how great that community is here, and then for that all to kind of be shattered, you know, kind of sucks.”
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