A fair worker who could be heard in a video posted on social media hurling a racial slur while operating a ride filled with children has been fired.
Trevor Reiland, who witnessed the incident at Lee County Fair in southwestern Florida, uploaded a video to Facebook on Sunday of a fight that ensued after the patron was called the racial slur.
"Can’t even enjoy the fair these days," Reiland captioned the video. "Guy drags the operator off the ride, after being called the N word."
Reliand wrote that he was not certain how the fight started but that he did know that the "older white guy" in the video called the other man the N-word about four times, which set him off.
The video had more than 37,000 views, almost 900 shares and garnered 1,000 comments by Wednesday morning.
During the recording, children can be seen and heard crying as parents appear unsure of what to do.
According to Reiland, the fair worker operating the ride called an African American man's wife a "b----," NBC affiliate WBBH in Florida reported.
The African American man can be seen on the video hitting the ride operator on his arm and telling him, "Come talk to me."
At one point, the ride operator turns around and calls him a "stupid motherf-----" and "stupid n----- b----." The African American man then leaps over the platform rail and pulls the ride operator by his hoodie.
Everyone on the ride can be seeing frantically fleeing after the fight ensued.
Reiland did not immediately return a request for comment from NBC News. He told WBBH the incident was "upsetting."
"For the kids, we had to explain you know what happened, 'cause they asked what that word was," Reiland said. "So it was pretty upsetting."
Reithoffer Shows, the company that supplies fair workers to Lee County, condemned the behavior displayed in the video and said that as soon as the ride operator's conduct was brought to its attention, he was terminated.
"Regardless of the provocation, there is no excuse or tolerance for discriminatory or offensive actions directed to a patron, guest or anybody else for that matter," Reithoffer Shows said in a statement on its Facebook page. "It does not make any difference whose fault it was, the conduct of our representative was inexcusable and our entire family and management team extends our apologies."
Reithoffer Shows said it is a 124-year-old family owned and operated company, which employs people of every creed, color, sexual orientation, and religion.
"The Reithoffer Family has always chosen to run their company with the same core values that they instill in their own children which includes treating people how you want to be treated, understanding that no one is better than anyone else, that all people are redeemable and deserve a second chance and when all else fails to just be kind," the company said.
