Two men entered the Liquid Zoo Bar & Grill in Dallas, TX on February 2 and began harassing patrons by yelling homophobic slurs. Bartenders tried to escort the men from the premises but they resisted, and began throwing punches.
Now Dallas police have made a public plea in hopes of finding two unidentified suspects. Law enforcement is treating the incident as a hate crime.
Cameras caught the attack, on tape and police hope a member of the public can aid in identifying the suspects.
“It was kind of nightmarish because you never know what’s going to happen in that situation,” Ronnie Mikyles, one of the bar employees, told CBS News. “My face had gotten split open, and the back of my head was swollen on the right side of my face.”
The bar posted the following statement via Facebook.
“One thing we at Zoo don’t condone is the behavior that took place at the bar tonight. We are a family of customers, friends and staff. We want to apologize to our Zoo Peeps that were subjected to the group that came in and was causing problems. I just met with my Zoo Crew and addressed how this type of situation is to be handled in the future. We managed to provide good video to PD as well as license plates for a handful of the vehicles. We will not tolerate HATE against our bar.”
Gary Welborn, owner of the Liquid Zoo Bar & Grill said this is a first for them. He said his patrons are a tight-knit group of regulars, and he never expected anything like this to happen.
“You would think being 2020 we wouldn’t have that issue, but unfortunately, it’s bred into a lot of people,” Welborn said.