BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — Chipotle executives apologized this week after an employee made a "hands up, don't shoot" gesture as nine NYPD officers walked into the chain's Brooklyn Heights location.
The “spontaneous, unplanned action...appears to have been a gesture of protest" and involved only one worker at the 185 Montague St. location, Chipotle CEOs Steve Ells and Monty Moran said in a statement. It “was not a coordinated effort by the staff of the restaurant,” the executives said.
The officers — who were waiting in line at the fast-food Mexican joint — were not refused service but chose to leave the restaurant after the worker put his or her hands up at about 6:15 p.m. on Dec. 16, the company said.
The act came after several weeks of organized protests following the grand jury decisions in the deaths of Eric Garner on Staten Island and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.
Protesters at the demonstrations often raised their hands toward police and said, “Hands up, don’t shoot."
The Chipotle incident took place just four days before two NYPD officers were shot and killed by a gunman in Bed-Stuy. NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton called the police officers’ murders a “direct spinoff” of the demonstrations.
Moran and Ells said the company conducted a review of video footage and spoken to other staff members at the restaurant after the incident.
Chipotle has taken “appropriate actions” against the involved employee, who was not identified. The details of the actions were not immediately known.
“We have proudly served law enforcement officers in our restaurants around the country for the last 21 years and we continue to do so every day,” Ells and Moran said in a statement.
