(Cleveland) - The owner of one of the restaurants that was reportedly not following social distancing rules this past weekend is now standing by his general manager, who posted on social media that a former employee should go back to his own country.
It started when Taras Ustrutskyy, a former employee of Town Hall on West 25th Street, made comments on Facebook about someone else's post, showing photos of patrons of Town Hall not practicing social distancing on Saturday. The restaurant's manager, Ryan Hartzell, got into a war of words with Ustrutskyy on Facebook, eventually telling the man of Ukranian descent, "if you hate this country so much, go back to the one you came from."
Both Ustrutskyy and Hartzell received threats on the Facebook page. Those posts have been deleted.
Town Hall owner Bobby George wrote his own response on Instagram. He said he did a complete investigation of the situation. George says he stands by his general manager, saying even though Hartzell should not have engaged with someone on social media like this, he has no history of racism. Hartzell will have to undergo sensitivity training.
As for Ustrutskyy, George says he was fired from the restaurant for publicly, and on social media, threatening to kill people.
Ustrutskyy told cleveland.com he did not want to comment, other than to say he has received death threats.
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