Police in Sacramento, Calif., have arrested a man accused of assaulting an Asian American restaurant worker over a missing egg roll order.
How it happened: Diana Dich, 30, arrived at her parents’ restaurant Happy Takeout on Aug. 29 to help resolve a customer dispute. The interaction allegedly ended in violence, with Dich being “tossed around into the road.”
- A restaurant worker reportedly called Dich to inform her that the male customer — who happened to be a regular — was acting aggressively over a missing egg roll order. Dich tried to de-escalate the situation, but the customer allegedly remained abusive.
- A surveillance clip of the incident shows the customer throwing a bag of food at Dich’s face. Dich then left the building to take photos of the man’s car for evidence.
- The customer allegedly charged at Dich, who then pepper-sprayed him. The scene escalated with Dich being thrown onto another customer’s car, the Sacramento Bee reported.
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Customer arrested: The customer, identified as 42-year-old Anthony Brewer, allegedly returned multiple times later that day. However, he was arrested the next day in the 3800 block of Third Avenue.
- Brewer, who is facing a felony assault charge, was booked into the Sacramento Main County Jail. He apologized for his actions in a statement to ABC10.
- “At a certain point, I should have just left,” Brewer told the outlet. “I was just totally wrong. I should not have thrown the bag. I should have asked for my money back, but at that point, I didn’t even want the food anymore.”
- However, Brewer claimed that he was acting in self-defense after Dich pepper-sprayed him. “As far as the assault, I was defending myself, totally 100% self-defense,” he said.
‘Easy targets’: Happy Takeout is located on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Dich said she’s unsure why the incident escalated, but she believes restaurants are “easy targets” of abusive behavior.
- “Restaurants are easy targets for people to abuse because they assume that… you know [they] should serve and that’s it,” Dich, who allegedly suffered injuries from the incident, told ABC10.
- Dich’s parents are Vietnamese-born, Chinese American immigrants who escaped Vietnam as refugees and arrived in the U.S. by boat. The family purchased Happy Takeout five years ago with their savings.
- In a separate statement to the Sacramento Bee, Dich said she hopes the incident
“would convince people to be more considerate and understanding about how they treat people” and that “it never happens to anyone else.”
Featured Image via Diana Dich (@mothbear)
