Gay man allegedly beaten by Shake Shack employees after kissing his boyfriend

A gay man in Washington, D.C. was allegedly beat up by a group of Shake Shack employees in Dupont Circle after he kissed his boyfriend while waiting for their food.

The incident, which occurred on Saturday, happened after D.C. resident Christian Dingus, 28, tried to de-escalate a confrontation between an employee, who had told his boyfriend and him not to kiss, and his boyfriend, who was upset by the comment.

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“While we were back there [in the restaurant] — kind of briefly — we began to kiss,” Dingus told NBC News. “And at that point, a worker came out to us and said that, you know, you can’t be doing that here, can’t do that type of stuff here.”

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Dingus’ boyfriend said that the pair had done nothing wrong, at which point the two men were escorted outside. Dingus and his boyfriend argued with the employees, when Dingus told an employee not to speak to his boyfriend disrespectfully, the Shake Shack employees allegedly started attacking him.

“And then one of the men, pretty forcefully, like, pushed me out of the way on my shoulder,” he described the incident. “And then, you know, next thing I know, that kind of just, I think, sparked the rest of them…. They all just kind of started attacking me at that point, dragging me back through the floor and continuously punching me in my head.”

A video was taken by another Shake Shack patron shows the beating. It shows a man, Dingus, being knocked to the ground and being assaulted by several other men who are seen running out the door and attacking him.

“There was a desire to be violent towards me, and I think it’s very evident in that film,” Dingus said.

He said that after he was thrown to the ground, he curled up in “fetal position,” and waited for the attack to stop. Dingus said he wasn’t sure who stopped the beating, but a woman also eating in the Shake Shack came out to help him, and the person that captured the video offered it to him.

The beating is being investigated as a hate crime and police have classified the offense alleged by Dingus as a simple assault, with an anti-gay bias motivation, according to a copy of the police report filed with the Metropolitan Police Department.

A Shake Shack spokesperson said that all employees involved with the incident were suspended pending further review. “We are aware of the incident on Saturday, Aug. 17 involving team members and a guest at our Dupont Circle location and are taking it very seriously,” the spokesperson said in a statement Sunday. “At Shake Shack, the safety and well-being of our guests and team members are our top priority, and we have a zero-tolerance policy for any form of violence.”

Shake Shack is “committed to taking the appropriate actions” depending on what the findings are.

An ambulance arrived on the scene but Dingus didn’t take it. He did have to go to the emergency room later that day after experiencing intense pain in his jaw. Dingus was diagnosed with a concussion and trauma to his jaw. He is also very rattled from the incident.

“You hear all the time that this stuff happens, but, you know, I started kind of believing that it didn’t, right?” Dingus said. “I’ve been … thinking of progress and how great that community is here, and then for that all to kind of be shattered, you know, kind of sucks.”

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