Payton Burke, an employee at a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Springfield, was fired after yelling homophobic slurs at a gay couple on Wednesday night (Feb. 24).
Joshua Garner and his partner, Lee Walls were picking up an order for a DoorDash customer in the KFC drive-thru when Burke verbally attacked them, calling the couple "queers" and "fags".
Garner recorded the incident on his cell phone and later shared the video to his Facebook.
"So lee and I are out door dashing and this traumatic experience happened at KFC on 6th street Springfield Illinois. Please watch the whole thing closely. Idk what to do or who to talk to but I know people are going to be out of jobs," Garner wrote in the caption of the video on Facebook.
In the video Garner is heard saying, “You can’t do that! You can’t do that!", after being verbally attacked.
“I don’t give a f–k if y’all are gay or not. This motherf—-r looks queer so he can get the f–k out of here,” said Burke.
“You’re going to lose your job I hope you know that!” Garner replies.
The couple told WAND News hat the situation left them both shaken up.
"I have done two tours in Afghanistan and I have seen some crazy things, but never have I had it where I freeze up and I just freeze up," Walls said.
"It was like a shot to the heart, like a bullet to the heart," Garner said. It was like we couldn't say anything and the only person who could stick up and protect us was my little brother in the back seat."
KFC issued the following statement Thursday (Feb. 25):
"The behavior of the team member in this video is completely unacceptable, and the team member has been terminated. The franchisee who owns the restaurant has been in touch with the guest regarding this incident and offered an apology."
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