A Colorado man was arrested Monday after allegedly making racist and homophobic remarks toward two college students who were eating at an In-N-Out restaurant in the Bay Area on Christmas Eve. Students Arine Kim and Elliot Ha filmed the encounter on the now-viral TikTok.
Jordan Douglas Krah, 40, was charged with two counts of hate crime, according to a statement from the San Ramon Police Department.
In the video, Krahi is said to be seen harassing Kim and Ha, commenting on their sexuality and asking questions about their racial identity and ethnicity, even returning to question the duo after they left. He then threatens to spit in their faces before saying, “I’ll see you outside.”
“Elliot and I were shaking and stuttering toward the end of it,” Kim told CBS Bay Area, who said Krah continued to do it for “ten to fifteen minutes” after the couple left the restaurant.
“We made sure to ask the staff if you could walk us to our cars. We need to make sure he’s still not around. And the staff was just really helpful,” Ha told CBS Bay Area.
According to the San Ramon Police Department, the video’s virality helped police identify both the victims and the suspect.
After seeing the TikTok, which had nearly ten million views as of Monday night, police contacted Kim and Ha through social media and began a criminal investigation.
“With the help of social media, we were contacted by one of the individuals in this video,” San Ramon Police Chief Denton Carlson wrote on Twitter.
Krah has been booked into the Martinez County Jail in California, where he remained in custody as of 4 p.m. local time on Monday.
C Mandler is a social media producer and trending content writer based in New York, focusing on LGBTQ+ issues.
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