FALLOUT

Long Island Restaurant Owner Faces Backlash for Racist Video

Luigi Petrone, who owns Tutto Pazzo restaurant in Huntington Village, threatened to throw watermelons at peaceful protesters and called them “savages.”

A restaurant owner in Long Island is facing backlash after calling peaceful protesters “savages” and threatening to throw watermelons at them in a Facebook Live video Monday afternoon. Luigi Petrone, who owns Tutto Pazzo restaurant in Huntington Village, recorded the video as protesters marched toward his restaurant. The peaceful protest, meant to condemn the death of an unarmed black man in Minneapolis police custody, drew about 200 people. “They saw a bunch of us with a bunch of watermelons we were going to throw at them,” Petrone said in the video. “You know what I mean? All the watermelons. They can't mess with us people in Huntington." More than 100 people took a knee outside Petrone’s restaurant Tuesday evening to protest his comments, chanting “Black Lives Matter” and “George Floyd.”