Chipotle Apologizes To Fired St. Paul Manager, Offers Job Back

SAINT PAUL, MN — Chipotle has reversed its decision to fire the manager of a Saint Paul location just days after she was terminated. Dominique Moran was fired after Masud Ali posted a video Friday showing a group of black men who were refused service unless they could show they had money for the meal.

Moran believed the group were customers from a couple nights ago who were not able to pay for their food.

The videos posted to Twitter by Ali, 21, show Moran telling the group Thursday that they have to pay because they never have money when they come to the Grand Avenue location.

Employees behind the counter ignore the group as they wait to be served and the men in the group accuse the employees of stereotyping them.

"What happened here is not how our employees should treat our customers," Chipotle tweeted Friday. "The manager has been terminated and the restaurant has been retrained so this doesn’t happen again."

Following the incident, tweets surfaced showing Ali apparently discussing "dining and dashing."

"Dine and dash is forever interesting," read a tweet from Ali's account, posted in 2015.

"aye man i think chopotle catchin up to us fam. should we change locations and yoooooo what should we do about the other thang," reads another from 2016.

The tweets have since been deleted. Chipotle said it was aware of those tweets before the company fired the manager.

But on Sunday, the restaurant chain said it may reverse the decision after it learned of "additional information."

By Monday, the restaurant chain completed its about-face, telling Patch that "based on our review of evidence, we’ve offered our manager her job back."

"While our protocol was not followed in this visit, we apologize to our manager for being put in this position," the company said. "We'll continue to ensure that we support a respectful workplace for our employees and guests."

Moran told the Star Tribune she was standing up for her employees when she refused service to the group of men.

"I was obviously trying to do the right thing," Moran told the newspaper. "I didn’t think I would lose my job, I thought I did something good by standing up for my people."

Moran isn't sure if she will return to her job. A GoFundMe page was started to raise money for her and "support her through the holidays."

"Myself and any of Dom’s friends and loved ones know that she loved her job, loves people and did not deserve the unfortunate chain of events that occurred this week," the page reads.

"I don’t feel she deserves to be without pay for protecting her team and I want to fight for her."

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Image via GoFundMe