Customer At Center of Alleged Racist Food Cart Incident Shares His Story [Updated]

Sources have come forward with new information regarding last week’s incident in which Chicken & Guns food cart co-owner Dustin Knox called the police on a black customer named Kevin Raysor. Both the Portland Police Bureau representative Sergeant Peter Simpson and Raysor contacted Eater Portland within the last 24 hours to update the story.

In case you missed it, a Facebook post (now-redacted) circulated on July 25 saying that Knox asked Raysor to leave while he was waiting for Chicken & Guns to open and then called 911 on him.

Temporary Public Information Officer Peter Simpson found notes from the 911 call from Knox on Sunday, July 22, at 10:16 a.m. On the call, Knox claimed a black male wearing a khaki shirt and blue jeans was “yelling racial slurs” and threatening to beat up a landscaper near the food cart pod.

A 911 call earlier that day at 9:10 a.m. had a similar message, according to Simpson. A note in the police record details an unnamed person reporting a black male wearing khaki pants and a black t-shirt at SE Milwaukie Avenue and Ogden Street “yelling racial slurs” at passersby and “making threatening gestures.”

Simpson added, “There is a note that the suspect was likely the same person,” however, the two reports detailed different attire and two locations that are 2.8 miles apart. Simpson said “it did not appear that police located or made contact with either suspect.” In an interview with Eater Portland, Raysor says he wasn’t near SE Milwaukie at the time of the first call.

After leaving the Portland State University campus in Southwest Portland to prepare for a Criminal Justice final, Raysor says he rode the bus across the Hawthorne Bridge and entered the Cartopia food cart pod. He decided to wait around for about an hour for the Chicken & Guns cart to open. Soon afterward, he says Knox took a break from watering plants around the cart to approach him and ask him what he was doing there.

Here’s the rest of what Raysor shared with Eater:

“[Knox] said, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘I’m just sitting here.’ He [then] said [again], ‘What are you doing here?’ I said, ‘Why? I’m waiting for the place to open.’ He said, ‘Well okay,’ and then walked off. Because I felt uncomfortable, I took out my phone and I took that picture. Then he said, ‘Okay you gotta leave.’”

Raysor said Knox then started to get close. Raysor continued his account:

“I said, ‘Dude, if you are going to touch me, I’m a martial arts teacher, I’m going to put on a demonstration and it’s not going to last long.’ I said ‘if you touch me, I’m going to lose it, and I’ll lose all this work I’m doing to get this Bachelor’s [degree].’”

Raysor said he had no memory of using any racial slurs, other than referring to Knox as a “white guy” and a “hick.”

“The racist thing isn’t the issue,” Raysor added. “This is Portland; you can’t get away from that. I had money to buy food, and he told me I couldn’t. That’s the thing that’s still on my mind. When I get mad, I say things, but I was sitting down quietly...Just because I have gray hair and a backpack doesn’t mean I’m homeless.”

Eater has reached out to Knox for comment and awaits a response.

Restaurant consulting firm Title Bout, which is affiliated with Chicken & Guns, confirmed that the incident occurred Sunday according to their internal investigation. Earlier this week, Title Bout issued a statement saying Knox has been placed on leave, and Knox apologized for “his role in the situation.”

Update, August 9, 2018, 2:42 p.m.
Willamette Week has obtained the transcript of the 911 call. Read it here.

• Chicken & Guns [Official]
• The Co-Owner of Chicken & Guns Allegedly Called the Cops on a Black Customer [EPDX]
• Amid Controversy, Chicken & Guns Puts Co-Owner Dustin Knox on Leave [EPDX]