Customers of a Chinese restaurant near Boston became violently angry when asked to wear face masks.
Lei Yan of Ming Dynasty Restaurant in Marshfield told WHDH the customers appeared intoxicated and erupted in rage when they were refused drinks and were asked to wear face masks.
“She was pushing my husband and smashed my front desk,” restaurant owner Lei Yan said. “It put my husband’s life in danger.”
Surveillance video also showed the group knocking down the protective plexiglass.
Authorities told WCVB among those in the group was an off-duty police officer. Quincy Police told the station it had launched an internal investigation.
“’Like, I’m a police officer, I don’t need a mask,”’ restaurant co-owner Jimmy Tian said the officer told him. “He just took his police ID, showing our whole bar, our whole restaurant.”
The incident exemplified just how difficult it is for small businesses to enforce face mask regulations.
Just one month earlier, the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission suspended the same restaurant for one day for non-enforcement.
WCVB reported investigators doing a spot check witnessed 100 to 150 people inside a packed restaurant with many not wearing masks.
“I’m so sorry for what I did wrong,” Yan said last month after being cited. “I know my difficulty is my difficulty, we don’t want to bring our difficulties to the government, even though we make less money than those on unemployment.”
The Board of Health said the restaurant would be subjected to spot checks going forward.
You can watch video of this week’s confrontation here on WHDH.
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