Protesters gathered outside of a New Jersey restaurant after a security guard and a K-9 charged at a Black man in the restaurant’s parking lot on Thursday.
Video was posted to social media by a woman who identified herself as the mother of the man whom the guard and dog charged at outside of the Adelphia Restaurant in south New Jersey.
“This happened to my son lastnight at Adelphias in deptford,” Tamika Hollywood wrote about the video shared to Facebook on July 31. The man in the video has been identified as 26-year-old Khalif Hunter.
Deptford Police said in a statement Thursday that the incident is under investigation.
“A private Security Officer, contracted by Adelphia Restaurant, deployed a K-9 dog during a disturbance in the Adelphia Restaurant parking lot,” the statement read. “It should be noted that neither the K-9 Handler, nor the K-9 dog were members of the Deptford Township Police Department. They were members of a private Security agency contracted by Adelphia Restaurant.”
The video begins with a group of people standing in a dark parking lot. The dispute reportedly began after Hunter refused to remove his hat at the restaurant. In the video, Hunter stands up from sitting on the curb then walks off-camera. Seconds later, a security guard and a K-9 charge after him and the video ends as the dog appears to take hold of his leg.
Hollywood also posted photos of her son’s injuries, which show a puncture wound to his leg and an injury to his hand.
“My son had on his hat lastnight at Adelphias they ask to remove it I guess he moved to slow an then this happen,” she wrote.
Hunter, a graduate of Rutgers University, told WHYY he was at the restaurant at around 12:50 a.m. on July 29 when he was told to remove his hat because it was a dress code violation. Hunter put the hat back on when he moved toward an outside deck where hats are permitted, but then decided to check it and was writing his name on a piece of paper to put in the hat when a worker said, “Don’t worry about it, you have to leave,’” Hunter recalled. “And I said, ‘I have to leave because I was wearing a hat? I’m a paying customer like everyone else, and there’s a lot of people inside wearing hats.’”
Hunter says he made two phone calls to friends he’d driven to the restaurant to let them know he was leaving, when he says an employee then came up behind him and put him in a wrestling hold. The scuffle moved outside, and Hunter said that before the incident began to be recorded, he had already been pinned down and bitten by the dog on his inner thigh after the guard instructed the dog, “Bite him! Attack!” several times.
The scuffle was broken up, and after the initial attack, another guard said what had transpired was “uncalled for.” When Hunter got up and walked away, as shown in the video, he cursed at the guard who had attacked him, prompting the interactions seen in the footage.
He said he’s received a tetanus shot and three rabies shots since the attack. The name of the security company hired by the restaurant hasn’t been made public.
On July 31, protesters demonstrated outside of the restaurant with Black Lives Matter flags, as Deptford Police officers monitored the scene.
On Friday, two protesters were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct
Organizer Gary Frazier vowed to keep protesting until Adelphia management had met three demands, including a public apology for the incident, an unspecified amount of monetary compensation for Hunter, and a ban on using dogs in security operations at the restaurant.
Hunter said his wrist is sprained and that officers told him that he is the victim and that the security guard is under investigation.