SYRACUSE, NY (YNN/CNN) - Employees at a Dunkin' Donuts in Syracuse, NY, have been fired after a viral video showed someone dumping water on a homeless man sleeping in the restaurant.
Dunkin' Donuts said in a statement that they were "extremely disturbed."
The shocking video was recorded Sunday inside the Dunkin’ on North Saline Street in Syracuse. An employee can be seen dumping water onto Jeremy Young, the homeless man.
Young's family is extremely disturbed.
“I’m appalled," said Betty Jo Craven, Young’s aunt. “For an employee of Dunkin' Donuts, he had no reason to do what he did to my nephew, a very caring, laid-back person. He doesn’t bother nobody. He doesn’t speak unless he’s spoken to.”
She's tried to take him in, but she says he sometimes prefers the street.
"He has been through a lot. He was a foster care child. He has oxygen deprivation. He's an epileptic and he has schizophrenia," Craven explained.
She said her nephew is constantly mistreated because he is homeless.
"I took him shopping, got him a bookbag and things like that so he could carry his things with him. He was robbed while he was sleeping over here on church steps," Craven recalled.
Rise Above the Streets, a homeless advocacy group in the area, knows this behavior all too well. And they were quick to come to Young's defense, protesting outside of the store on Monday.
"I’m that person telling Jeremy ‘you are somebody,’" said Al-Amin Muhammed, the founder of Rise Above the Streets.
Once homeless himself, Muhammed said this should have never happened.
A GoFundMe has been created to replace Young’s property that was damaged by the water.
Dunkin' Donuts said they will be getting in touch with Young to apologize for what happened. They also plan to work with local homeless advocacy groups to train workers.
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