Brawl Erupts At Publix Supermarket Over Chicken Wings [Video]

A brawl broke out involving customers and employees at the deli counter of a Tampa-area Publix supermarket, with a bystander to the chaotic scene recording the encounter on cell phone video.

Apparently the “beef,” as it were, got started over an order of chicken wings that went wrong.

Local cops have reportedly charged one participant with simple battery.

See footage of the Publix brawl as aired by Florida news media embedded below.

According to the woman who filmed the scuffle at the Publix in Temple Terrace, Florida, “It all started over an order of chicken wings and a rude customer… Then, shoppers began shouting, fists went flying, and it turned into a deli disaster,” WFLA reported.

The disgruntled shopper allegedly used racial slurs against the Publix deli worker, WFLA added.

Fox 13 Tampa offered this summary of what allegedly went down at the deli counter over chicken wings.

“Temple Terrace police confirmed that Raleigh Harris, 59, was ordering chicken at the deli counter when he got into a verbal altercation with a Publix employee. Leon Travis Lightbody, 25, overheard the conversation and took offense to it, police said, and that’s when the fists started flying. Jordan said other random shoppers also got involved in the brawl. The video shows Publix workers trying to break it up.”

The Publix supermarket chain, which is primarily based in Florida but operates grocery stores throughout the southeastern U.S., issued a statement about the dangerous deli incident.

“An altercation occurred involving our customers. A couple of our associates placed themselves in harm’s way attempting to break it up. Fortunately, no injuries occurred. The safety and well-being of our associates and customers is our first priority. We’re very disappointed the incident escalated as it did, but thankful no one was injured.”

A Publix spokesman added that violence inside any of its supermarkets “is not the norm.”

In July, however, another deli aisle brawl occurred in an Orlando-area Publix store.

That incident had its source outside the grocery when one of the men allegedly accused a pregnant woman of leaving a shopping cart in the middle of a parking space after unloading her groceries, thereby preventing him from pulling into a spot. She subsequently called her husband on her cell phone, who apparently confronted the man in the deli aisle. They wound up grappling and then landing haymakers on each other inside the store. Video of that Publix encounter received more than one million views on YouTube.

Unrelated to Publix, a chicken wings-related brawl involving San Francisco 49ers fans occurred last Sunday outside a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in California.

[image credit: Wslupecki]