Police have arrested a man believed to be part of a trio who attacked employees at a local pizza shop.
Igor Dragun, 18, lives in Lincoln, California. detained Oct. 1 at a home in Roseville, Calif., in connection with an assault on a Blaze Pizza restaurant employee last month.
Dragoon was booked into the Placer County Jail.
The attack is believed to have been motivated by anti-gay animus, and he faces charges of grievous assault as well as hate crime charges.
Police were searching for three suspects involved in the assault. No other arrests have been made at this time.
Police initially responded to a report of an assault at Blaze Pizza on Thursday, September 19 at approximately 10:15 p.m.
The man, now identified as Dragan, entered the store to pick up a delivery order and noticed a Pride flag being flown. The man allegedly grabbed the flag and threw it to the ground.
When Mr. Dragoon was questioned about his actions, he hurled anti-gay slurs at employees and quit the company. However, he then returned to the restaurant with two other men and began fighting with two employees.
The assault was caught on camera by a bystander, and footage of the altercation was widely shared online.
After the initial fight, an employee, believed to be a manager, ordered the men to leave the restaurant.
Lawless Society News ⚠️ Last night, three men got into an argument over a pride flag and attacked an employee at Blaze Pizza on Fairway Drive in Roseville, California.#RosevilleCA #prideflag #blazepizza #hatecrime #Breaking news #localnews #fairway drive #CaliforniaNews… pic.twitter.com/SWvVXA7SWf
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All three men fled before police arrived. One employee suffered facial injuries and was taken to an area hospital with a concussion, but has since been released.
said Chance Chacon, a witness who was inside the restaurant during the initial collision. KCRA Mr. Dragan claimed there was a problem with displaying a rainbow pride flag at the register and defended the employee for displaying the flag.
Chacon said he was in a car in the restaurant’s parking lot when Dragun and his two alleged accomplices returned to the restaurant. A fight broke out soon after.
“I was kind of scared too, because you never know, like, if someone has a gun or if someone has a weapon or something,” said Chacon of Yuma, Arizona/El Centro, California. told the NBC affiliate station based in . Kayma. “So that was also something that was in the back of my mind while everything was happening.”
Blaze Pizza responded to the initial incident and reiterated its commitment to the safety of its customers and employees.
“The safety and security of our staff and guests is of the utmost importance,” the restaurant said in a statement. “As this is an ongoing investigation, we cannot comment on the details, but we firmly condemn this type of violence and will continue to work with authorities to solve this isolated incident.”
Law enforcement officials told KCRA on Oct. 2 that they had reviewed surveillance video of the incident, interviewed suspects, witnesses and victims, and executed a search warrant. They say they are working with the Placer County District Attorney to identify the remaining two suspects.
One of the assailants seen in the video footage is a light-skinned suspect without shoes, wearing a torn dark T-shirt and hand wraps typically worn in mixed martial arts matches. I can see you doing it.
Police are appealing to anyone with information about the incident or who may be a suspect. Submit an anonymous tip online Please call your local police department or call the Roseville Police Department non-emergency number at 916-774-5000.
said Rudy Shields, a lesbian who owns the Anchor Eats snack shack and food boat in nearby Granite Bay and grew up in Placer County, which includes the area around Roseville. sacramento bee Despite the influx of new residents from the San Francisco Bay Area, she doesn’t think the area is LGBTQ-friendly.
As reported, beethe influx of new immigrants from the Bay Area has reshaped Placer County, sometimes leading to conflicts between the newcomers and the generally more conservative locals over culture war issues such as LGBTQ inclusion. there were.
The Roseville City Council recently passed a resolution banning the display of non-governmental flags on government buildings during Pride Month. A drag show planned at Roseville High School last year sparked outrage from parents. Additionally, there is no physical LGBTQ center in the county, meaning there is no safe place for local LGBTQ people to gather.
Shields said he doesn’t feel comfortable displaying the Pride flag at his establishment, and just recently updated the eatery’s Yelp page to identify it as LGBTQ-owned. Sometimes she doesn’t bother to correct guests who assume her cis male business partner Ben Shirley is her husband.
Source: Metro Weekly – www.metroweekly.com
