The clerk who spurred protests outside a Naperville Mobil gas station Wednesday after video showed him telling Hispanic customers “they need to go back to their country” and “ICE will come” has been fired, company officials said Thursday.
“Thank god. I am so happy,” said Nicte Buitron, who was with her family at the gas station when the incident occurred Tuesday. “What he said to my family was wrong.”
Steve Kalhorn, general counsel with Buchanan Energy, which owns the Washington Street location as well as 59 other stores in the Chicago-area market, said the clerk initially was suspended Wednesday pending an internal investigation. Since then, his employment has been terminated.
Kalhorn said after receiving numerous calls regarding a social media video Wednesday morning, he immediately had the information technology department pull the surveillance audio and video from the store.
“(The clerk) lost his temper,” Kalhorn said. “He should have handled things differently.”
Protesters outside the station on Wednesday were calling for the clerk’s removal because many deemed his comments as racist.
Video captured Tuesday and posted on social media later that night shows a male station attendant at the Bucky’s Express at Washington Street and Bailey Road being confronted by several members of a Hispanic family over comments he made previously off camera questioning whether a 15-year-old girl and her cousins were citizens of the United States.
The 15-year-old — Indira Buitron, of Bolingbrook — was bicycling with her aunts and cousins Tuesday on the trail running along Washington Street. They stopped at the 1576 S. Washington St. Mobil station after a wheel on the Indira’s bike became loose and needed repair.
The family called 20-year-old Carolina Buitron, of Woodridge, to come pick up Indira and the bicycle.
While waiting, Indira said she and her cousins went into the Bucky’s store to see if they could purchase chips or a snack with the $2 they had.
The clerk apparently told girl and her cousins the food was too expensive and then asked if the cousins were adopted.
Indira told the man her cousins were visiting from Mexico.
He then allegedly questioned Indira’s citizenship and suggested her cousins need to go home.
“I was really surprised. No one ever asked me that before,” said Indira, who was born in the United States.
Indira recounted the story to her aunts and to Carolina Buitron when she arrived.
“I was already mad because my bike was broken,” Carolina Buitron said. “That poured more fuel on my fire.”
She said she immediately tried to confront the clerk over his comments, but her efforts were quashed by Bucky’s employees and another customer. The incident was captured on video along with another argument between the clerk and Carolina Buitron’s aunt and mother.
Carolina Buitron said she was shocked by the clerk’s reaction. “We come to this gas station all of the time on our bikes,” she said.
One of the visiting cousins, Maria Fernanda, 19, said she posted the video on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms to let people know how poorly they were treated. “It was not fair. It was racist,” she said.
Naperville Mayor Mayor Steve Chirico said the city prides itself on being open and inclusive.
“Let me be abundantly clear, hate has no home here in Naperville,” Chirico said. “Quite frankly, this behavior has no place in society at large.”
He said civility toward others is an important component of being a global citizen. “I urge everyone in our community to showcase the kindness, compassion and good decorum that our residents are known for and that our world needs more of,” Chirico said.
ExxonMobil spokesman Jeremy Eikenberry in an email said the company does not tolerate any form of discrimination or harassment by any company representative.
“ExxonMobil’s global policies promote diversity and inclusion and prohibit any form of discrimination or harassment in any company workplace, anywhere around the world,” Eikenberry said.
He added ExxonMobil does not own or operate any retail fuels stations in the United States, “but we are aware of the situation and take these matters very seriously.”
“Exxon and Mobil stations are supplied by authorized independent-branded wholesalers who either operate the stations directly or have a contractual relationship with an independent owner/operator,” Eikenberry said in his email.
Kalhorn also said there are two sides to the story.
He said the clerk might have been set up because surveillance video shows the camera phones were recording as the family members entered the store and the clerk was drawn into the arguments.
“The two women who went in were clearly confrontational,” Kalhorn said. “Unfortunately he lost his cool.”
Accusations that the company is racist or discriminatory are wrong, he said.
More than 50% of their employees in their more than 200 gas stations across the United States are people of color, and management positions are hired from within the company, he said.
The manager of the Bucky’s where the incident occurred is a Hispanic woman and the territory manager is an African American woman, Kalhorn said.
“We’re not discriminatory,” he said. “We don’t put up with discrimination.”
Protesters on Wednesday were calling for an apology; others say the clerk should be fired.
Juan Garcia, 24, of Aurora, said he came to protest outside the Mobil station midday Wednesday because he would not be able to attend a larger rally in the afternoon. The Hispanic community in Aurora was organizing people to attend, he said.
As Garcia stood on the corner wearing a red “Immigrants Make America Great” ball cap, he said he doesn’t view the city of Naperville as generally racist.
“Naperville has been really split,” he said. “Some people will say I try not to be racist but it comes out in their conversations.”
Only through education can people change, he said, which is why he’s helped organize immigrant rights events at Benedictine University in Lisle, where he’s a student.
The rhetoric from President Donald Trump, he said, fuels the same language that appeared on the video.
“If people see that from the president, then they think it’s OK,” Garcia said. “It’s just going to become the norm.”
subaker@tripbpub.com
Twitter @sbakersun
