A white businessman, based in Minneapolis, has had his office lease terminated after a viral video showed him calling the police on a group of black entrepreneurs, who he claimed had no right to be in his gym.
Social media startup, Team Top Figure, proceeded to share a video of their exchange with venture capitalist, Tom Austin, in the gym in their office building. The incident occurred on Tuesday night.
The clip, which has garnered over 50,000 likes on Instagram, shows Austin taking pictures of the men, and accusing them of not being tenants of the building. The African-American men tell Austin, "we pay rent", but he continues to ask "what office are you in?" before threatening, "I'm calling 911 now."
In another video, which shows Austin on the phone to law enforcement, the entrepreneurs can be heard stating: "As you guys can see, we're dealing with racism here."
"We are sick and tired of tolerating this type of behavior on a day to day basis and we feel that we had to bring light onto this situation," they captioned the video.
The owner of the building, Stuart Ackerberg - CEO of the Ackerberg Group - has since terminated Austin's lease. Speaking to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Ackerberg said that he was "heartbroken" and "alarmed" by the incident.
Austin has since issued an apology, telling the publication: "I said, 'I'm sorry you thought I was being racist, but I was not. If you were a bunch of women, I would have done the same thing.'"
This comes after the death of George Floyd. The African-American man was arrested by Minneapolis police on Monday, May 25th, for reportedly using a counterfeit $20 note in a store. While being detained, officer Derek Chauvin - a 19 year veteran of the force - knelt on his neck for eight minutes, which resulted in him losing consciousness, and later passing away.
Protests have since broken out across the country, with people demanding that all four officers involved in Floyd's death be brought to justice.
Watch a news report on protests in Minneapolis below, where a white CNN journalist describes how differently he was treated by police at the demonstration: