‘7 employees were terminated:’ Vicious brawl at Milwaukee Popeyes caught on cellphone video

MILWAUKEE (WITI) — Outrageous cellphone video from inside a Milwaukee Popeyes restaurant shows a group of employees getting into a vicious brawl. This all went down while customers were inside. The violent encounter happened at a Popeyes in Milwaukee.

Richard Fourte’ wanted to avoid the drive-thru line — and went inside.

“I said to myself, I said, ‘Wow, there’s a lot of people working here,”‘ Fourte’ said.

Soon it went from calm to chaos inside the restaurant.

“I heard one of them yell, ‘It’s a fight,” Fourte’ said. “They ran to the back by the grills, OK. Now, there was a fight back there. I didn’t get that one on tape.”

Fourte’ said tensions were just beginning to mount. Feeling the hostility, Fourte’ grabbed his cellphone and started recording.

Moments later, a violent fight broke out with several employees throwing punches.”Honestly, I wasn’t even going to get the chicken sandwich.”Soon, the situation cooled off — and Fourte’ left empty-handed.

When police arrived on scene, they determined no weapons were involved — and no arrests were made. It is unclear what sparked the altercation.

Statement from Popeye’s franchise owner

“This was an unfortunate, isolated incident which we take very seriously.  The dining room was closed immediately after the altercation at 9:30 p.m.  As a result of this, 7 employees were terminated from the company, including the manager on duty,” said John Brodersen.