The manager who called police on two black men who had refused to leave a Philadelphia Starbucks no longer works there, a company spokeswoman confirmed to ABC News today.
The news follows Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson’s comments this morning that he will order managers of the coffee giant's stores to undergo training on how to spot "unconscious bias" after witnesses said the men were arrested at a Philadelphia shop for doing nothing but sitting at a table.
"I'll say the circumstances surrounding the incident and the outcome at our store on Thursday were reprehensible," Johnson said in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ "Good Morning America" today. "They were wrong, and for that, I personally apologize to the gentlemen that visited our store."
A Starbucks spokesman told The Inquirer and Daily News of Philadelphia that the manager left the downtown store at 18th and Spruce Streets in what the company called a “mutual” decision.
Johnson, the chief executive officer, was in Philadelphia this morning, a day after protesters rallied Sunday at a downtown Philadelphia Starbucks, where the two black men, who have yet to be identified, were led out in handcuffs Thursday by police and accused of trespassing.
The demonstrators had demanded Starbucks fire the manager of the store for calling the police.
As Johnson was being interviewed on “GMA” this morning, about two dozen protesters were at the downtown Philadelphia Starbucks chanting, "A whole lot of racism, a whole lot of crap, Starbucks coffee is anti-black."
The protesters later held a sit-in inside the Starbucks shop.
"We don't want this Starbucks to make any money today. That's our goal," Abdul-Aliy Muhammad, one of the protest's organizers and co-founder of the Black and Brown Workers Collective, told The Associated Press.
In response, the company’s CEO said this morning, Starbucks will conduct a thorough investigation of the incident and he hopes to ask the two men who were arrested to "join me in finding a constructive way to solve this issue."
Protesters rally at Philadelphia Starbucks where two black men were handcuffed and arrested for 'trespassing' Protesters at Starbucks chant company is 'anti-black'Johnson said he has yet to speak to the men, who have retained an attorney.
"Clearly, there's an opportunity for us to provide clarity and in addition to that I'd say there's training, more training that we're going to do with our store managers, not only around the guidelines but training around unconscious bias," Johnson said.
The 28,000 Starbucks store across the nation may have slightly different regional guidelines on how to handle situations that warrant police intervention, he added.
"Now, there are some scenarios where the police should be called. If there's threats or disturbance, those may be appropriate times," Johnson said. "In this case, none of that occurred. It was completely inappropriate to engage the police."
The arrests of the men were captured on video and tweeted by Melissa DePino, a 50-year-old mother of two who told ABC News she has vowed not to patronize Starbucks again. The video has since been viewed more than 9 million times.
"It was humiliating for those guys," DePino said. "They were completely minding their own business."
Both men were later released and the charges they were facing -- trespassing and disturbance -- were dropped Thursday night.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner also refused to prosecute after Starbucks asked to not press charges.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross Jr. said in a video testimonial released by the police department Saturday that his officers "did absolutely nothing wrong."
"I can tell you candidly these officers did a service they were called to do," he said.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney slammed Starbucks for the incident, saying it "appears to exemplify what racial discrimination looks like in 2018."
Reggie Shuford, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, also condemned the incident, saying in a statement today that "it shows that black people can't even 'wait while black.'"
"Starbucks failed these men and all of its customers by treating them in this unfair and demeaning way," Shuford said. "Based on all eyewitness accounts, there was no need for police intervention. These men were terribly disrespected by Starbucks employees."
Shuford also faulted the police for arresting the men, adding Ross needs to change his department's policies and procedures.
“Starbucks may be able to decide who sits in its store, but only the police could decide to arrest these men," Shuford said.
Johnson, the CEO, said Starbucks accepts full responsibility for what occurred.
"Starbucks was built as a company that creates a warm, welcoming environment for all customers," he told “GMA.”
"That didn't happen in this case. That, I know. And so it's my responsibility to ensure that we review everything. We review the actions of the store manager, we review the guidelines that were provided and we review and invest in the training necessary to ensure that doesn't happen again."