April Epperson lost her job as a manager of a Subway restaurant in Birmingham, Ala., after she was caught on video screaming the N-word during a confrontation.
Antuan Clark uploaded a two-minute video to Facebook, which shows Epperson repeatedly screaming at Clark and telling him to get out of her store. The video has gone viral.
Clark was at the store to visit his sister, who had started her first day of work. He said Epperson called him inside and told him he could not loiter at the store or even Valley Avenue Plaza when his sister is working, according to WBRC.
Epperson claimed Clark was a distraction to his sister’s training. Clark said his sister was fired on the spot. He was eventually forced out of the door after an argument with Epperson. Following that, she can be heard in the video shouting the N-word at him.
Epperson said that Clark “punched me in my face.”
But it’s not clear in the video footage if that had occurred.
“The only thing that came out of my mouth was, ‘n***ger,’ and I’m sorry,” she told the news channel.
Trent Evans and Matt Starr with Subway released the following statement on Thursday announcing Epperson’s dismissal:
“We are very upset that this happened and it does not reflect our core value to respect every individual. We welcome all guests to our restaurant and given the unacceptable behavior of the manager, she no longer works for us.
“We take this very seriously and have suspended operations until the staff has completed retraining in proper guest interaction.”
In May, Subway, based in Milford, Conn., announced that CEO Suzanne Greco would be retiring. Greco had been CEO since 2015 and started working at the company in 1973. Trevor Haynes, chief business officer, was appointed interim CEO during the transition.
“Subway is in crisis” as national sales and traffic figures dropped in 2017,” according to Business Insider.
Community activist Carlos Chaverst held a news conference in front of the Alabama Subway store.
“We need not just this Subway to do some training,” he said according to WBRC. “We need all Subways to do some training of their employees.”
#EatingWhileBlack: Subway Employee Calls Cops on Family for ‘Going Back and Forth to the Bathrooms’
Last month, at a Subway in Georgia, an employee called 911 on a Black family of seven eating dinner together. She suspected they were plotting a burglary while eating sandwiches.
