Czech Republic: Pizzeria management says Romani man who died there attacked customers, who "detained him until police arrived"
According to the management of the Cafe Pizzerie Panamera, the young Romani man who died in the restaurant on Tuesday, 18 October, visited the business twice that day. On the first occasion he reportedly ordered a non-alcoholic beverage and wanted to borrow a telephone, allegedly to call his relatives.
The management claims the young man left without paying for the drink. He returned to the restaurant later and allegedly assaulted customers seated at a table.
“Other customers detained him until help arrived in the form of the municipal and state police called to the scene,” reads the press release by the management of Pizzerie Panamera, which news server Romea.cz publishes here in full translation.
Press release on the unfortunate events of 18 October 2016
On Tuesday, 18 October 2016, an unfortunate incident in the early evening involved an assault on our customers. The entire team at Pizzerie Panamera has been in danger since that unfortunate event.
On the Tuesday in question, a young man visited our workplace in the afternoon, ordered a non-alcoholic beverage, and already at that time began to bother other customers. The staff verbally warned him about his behavior and did their best to aid him when he asked to borrow a telephone to call his relatives.
At that time it was apparent that the man was under the influence of alcohol or another addictive substance. Roughly five minutes later he left the restaurant without paying, and when he returned in the early evening, he began to assault some unsuspecting ladies seated at a table.
Other customers detained him until help arrived in the form of the municipal and state police called to the scene. After ascertaining that the young man did not appear to be alive, first aid was provided in the form of attempts at resuscitation until the arrival of emergency medical services, who took the man into their professional care.
No employee of the Cafe Pizzerie Panamera is to blame for the death of the young man, and therefore we ask that all citizens honor the presumption of innocence. Threats, in the form of possible assaults and other verbal or written displays against our employees, are an intimidation that has led to the closure of our workplace for reasons of the safety of our customers and employees.
The entire matter is being dealt with by the Criminal Police of the Czech Republic, to whom we have provided all of our CCTV footage of the incident and with whom we are closely cooperating. According to today’s declaration [from 20 October 2016] of the Police of the Czech Republic, we can quote from the web portal www.policie.cz: “According to the initial findings of the court-ordered autopsy, no third-party involvement was ascertained”, and therefore we are issuing this press release in order to refute the untrue information that is making the rounds of social networking sites, the media, and among local residents.
