Iconic Pizza Store Manager on Leave After Cellphone Incident [VIDEO]

Just let me start of by saying we wish this man no ill will, or bad fortune. But what we lived through tonight is not acceptable, for my wife and kids to have gone through this breaks my heart! The gentleman in the grey shirt claimed to be the owner of the establishment we regrettably choose to dine at.

He approached me at the salad bar, aggressively demanding I put the salad on my plate back into salad bar, I respectfully denied his request based on it being unsanitary and the fact I’d patiently been waiting for my pizza to arrive for quite some time. Yes, this was my second trip to the salad bar, but he could have approached me in 10 different ways. He immediately began to demand I leave the establishment after I denied his request, visibly agitated, he was shaking and threatened to call the police. Which I was fine with, since I felt the “owner” was singling me out, and being racist to my family and I. I followed him to the phone where he was calling the police from, asked my wife to begin recording, when he suddenly violently swung at my wife, hitting her in the hand, knocking the phone out of her hand. The only way I can explain the that fact we didn’t lose our cool, was that we where in shock, asking ourselves, is this really happening. The video is 3 minutes long, and law enforcement did get involved. KPD handled the situation very professionally, and treated both party’s with respect!

I did charge him with racism, which I believe fits, you might disagree. But if you’re white, you’ve most likely never been or will be put in a situation like this, called a thief in front of your family and other customers for a second round at the salad bar, told to leave the establishment and never come back, while also being threatened to have the cops called on you. Keep in mind, this all started over a second trip to the salad bar.

That did not constitute being humiliated, and assaulted. The place is in downtown Kennewick, of Columbia Drive, a “family pizza place”, and rhymes with chubbys pizza.

UPDATE: My family and I are very grateful to live in such a tight community, thanks to all for the continuing show of support and solidarity to condemn violence, and discrimination.

However, there are always two sides to every story: (from other customers and sources very close to the story)

 According to witnesses and other customers, there were several small children who were part of Velasco's dining party, and those children were running around unattended and sticking their fingers and hands into the toppings and food in the salad bar. So much so, that restaurant workers changed out the food to avoid any contamination, but it continued. After several warnings to stop 'abusing' the salad bar, there was increasingly heated discussions and then Mr. Velasco went behind the counter and verbally confronted (some say threatened) the manager. Some say that's what led to his moment of frustration (and error) in knocking away the camera phone.