A transgender woman has been fired by Starbucks after she was caught on video escalating a heated argument with a female customer and allegedly scuffling with a man who filmed the incident.
The nasty confrontation, which has since drawn a police probe for alleged assault, took place late last month at a Starbucks branch near the ferry terminal of Southampton, Hampshire in the UK.
The 56-second viral clip starts with the female customer shouting: “Don’t ever call me transphobic! Ever! You do not know me!”
The Starbucks barista, who has stepped in front of the counter alongside the enraged customer, replies: “You’re calling me a man. You’re being transphobic, Karen, now get out.”
After calling the customer “Karen” — an insulting social-media moniker for white women who have a bone to pick — the altercation heats up further.
Again, the Starbucks employee orders the woman to leave the coffee shop. “Now get out,” the employee said while motioning for the door.
Despite the woman repeatedly ordering the worker not to call her transphobic, the Starbucks employee persists, clapping in her face and refusing her demand for a refund.
“You are transphobic, now get out,” the employee says again before telling the woman she’s “trespassing now.”
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The man filming the squabble is then heard saying: “Apparently, we said something transphobic,” as if in response to a passerby who asked what’s going on.
Immediately following the comment, the Starbucks worker storms over to the filming man. The employee is then seen lunging towards the phone and swatting it out of the man’s hand.
The worker is then heard in the background repeatedly ordering the man to “give me the phone.”
“Let go of me,” the man replies as the violent scuffle appears to spill outside the coffee shop onto the street.
The heated scene was posted to Twitter by media personality Oil London on Sunday. Since then, it’s garnered more than 4.4 million views and has prompted heavy criticism.
The Hampshire Police told MailOnline in a statement that it “received a report of an assault at Starbucks in Beresford House, Town Quay in Southampton on Sunday 30 April.”
They added: “It is alleged that a staff member became verbally abusive towards a customer within the premises, before assaulting a member of the public who was filming the incident.”
“No injuries were reported,” and the investigation is ongoing, the police told MailOnline.
