McDonald’s Fires Employee Who Threw Water on Homeless Man in Viral Video

A McDonald’s franchise in Detroit has fired an employee amid outrage over a video showing him throwing water at a homeless man.

Franchise owner Wise Finley confirmed to the Detroit Free Press that the employee’s job was terminated.

A video that went viral shows the former worker at the Detroit location inviting an elderly homeless man to take a free sandwich. When the man, referred to in the video as “Willie,” approaches, the employee quickly snatches the sandwich away and throws a cup of water into his face.

The video garnered hundreds of thousands of views and generated huge outrage against the employee.

“I think we forget sometimes that people experiencing homelessness are just like you and I,” Tasha Gray, executive director of the Homeless Action Network of Detroit, said to the paper about the incident. “We have working families who just don’t have enough means to make ends meet. I like to tell my staff that we’re one missed paycheck away from homelessness.”