Liquor Barn fires 2 employees after black woman denied access to Louisville store's restroom

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Liquor Barn has fired two employees at one of its Louisville locations after a black woman was denied access to the store's restroom.

A construction worker recapped the incident in a Facebook video posted by Kenny Meier Tuesday afternoon. The video had been shared 2,100 times as of Thursday night. The man said he and his coworkers, including a black woman, were in the parking lot of the Party Mart at 4804 Brownsboro Road when two members of the construction crew went inside the store and asked employees if they could use the restroom. They were granted access to the restroom, but the woman was denied when she asked, according to the man narrating the video.

"I don't usually do this, but I've got to," the man says at the beginning of the video.

The Party Mart employees told the woman she could not use the bathroom because "it's closed because of the coronavirus," the man later says.

"I seen it with my own eyes," the man says. "And it's disgusting."

Liquor Barn apologized for the incident in a statement issued Wednesday.

A statement from Liquor Barn - Party Mart pic.twitter.com/zIlJraSCdC
— Liquor Barn (@liquorbarn) June 10, 2020

"The Liquor Barn-Party Mart organization deeply regrets and is very embarrassed by the situation that occurred at our Brownsboro Road location in Louisville on June 9. As the civic unrest in our community and across the world clearly demonstrate, significant process is needed to address racial inequity and prejudice.

"Discrimination in any manner is never tolerated from our staff. The individual responsible for yesterday's incident as well as our general manager were both terminated today. In addition, we have met with the woman in the video and apologized; she did not deserve to be treated that way. We recognize the behavior was unacceptable and we will do better.

"To ensure inappropriate behavior like this does not occur at Liquor Barn-Party Mart in the future, we will be undergoing a company-wide assessment of our diversity and inclusion processes and implementing company-wide sensitivity training for our employees and leadership."