Police are investigating an unidentified white man who reportedly pulled a gun on a group of black Muslim teens inside of a Minnesota McDonalds.
The investigation was birthed after one of the teens posted a video to social media Monday. The clip quickly went viral garnering more than a million views at the time of this post.
While speaking to Buzzfeed News Tuesday (Nov. 20) 16-year-old Farida Osman said she thinks the potential fatal incident occurred because of her race and religion.
“I think it’s because we were black and Muslim,” Farida said. “I’ve had people being racist towards me before, but I’ve never had a gun pulled on me until now.”
Farida said she and a group of friends, three other girls, and about 10 boys, were at a library down the block from the McDonalds and decided to get some food. The boys sat down and the girls got in line to order.
Another girl within the group Jihan Abdullahi attempted to pay with Apple Pay but after several tries was unable to, in essence holding up the line. Jihan’s friend Amal tried to pay for her food with Apple Pay as well but couldn’t. It was then the man in the video began making comments.
@McDonalds is this what you stand for? We were just trying to order when this man said racist remarks, claimed to be touched (when really he pushed a kid as seen on video) pulled a gun out on kids and you still kick us out knowing we’re in danger? 1/2 pic.twitter.com/3vKXsxhuwH
— farida (@snatchingedgess) November 20, 2018
“He was being kind of aggressive,” Amal, who was wearing a red Hajib said. According to Amal, someone behind the teens and in front of the complainer attempted to quell the rising tension. “Sir, we’re all waiting for our dinner.”
The manager then instructed Amal and Farida to get out of line if they couldn’t pay, which they did. As the two got to the back of the line, the complainer commented the girls would probably pay for their meal with an EBT card, or Electronic Benefit Transfer, a form of payment given to those on welfare.
“Jihan said, ‘Just because I’m black does not mean I use EBT.’ Basically, after that, he was trying to say, ‘You do use EBT,’ and Jihan was saying, ‘No I don’t,’ and telling him to stop being racist.”
Farida began to fear when the man began to approach her friends. “He started walking towards Amal and Jihan screamed at her and at this point, when I tried to get my phone out to start recording, he backed away,” she said.
Farida said she could see the man ball up his fists. She then called for her guy friends who came to their defense. “Once he saw a big group of Somali boys, he felt even more threatened, even though nobody made threats or touched him,” she said.
As the confrontation continues, a McDonald’s manager can be seen yelling at the group of teens and telling to them get out. As one of them screams the man had a gun, the manager still tells them to leave. It was only after a man, who did not identify himself, corroborates the teen’s story the manager believes him.
“Don’t send them out there when the dude just pulled a f**king gun on them. You better f**king call the cops.”
Farida said she was thankful the man spoke up. “I’m so thankful that one man was there,” Farida said. “I feel like if he wasn’t there, we would have had to leave; they would’ve called the cops on us.”
In a statement, the Eden Prairie, Minnesota police said they’re investigating the circumstances of the incident to determine if a crime was committed.
“We’re children,” Farida said. “If the good guy who helped us wasn’t there to help us, we would’ve been kicked out and we could’ve been shot.”