Merrill Lynch Employee Fired and Arrested After Racist Smoothie Shop Tirade
Forty-eight-year old James Iannazzo has been fired from Merrill Lynch after a video of him screaming at Robek’s smoothie shop employees went viral on TikTok. Iannazzo is also facing criminal charges after screaming racial epithets and throwing a smoothie at the young employees.
Iannazzo can be seen in the original TikTok video at the Robeks in Fairfield, Connecticut, yelling at the employees. He claims that at around 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon, he purchased a smoothie for his 17-year-old son, which had peanut butter in it. His son has an anaphylactic allergy to peanut butter, and around thirty minutes later, 911 received a call with a report of a child having a severe allergic reaction.
Iannazzo went back to Roebeks and began screaming at the employees, wanting to know who made his sons drink. The employees are unaware of who made the drink, and Iannazzo becomes more irate. One of the employees then began yelling at him as well, prompting one of her coworkers telling her to stop.
He can be seen in the video yelling “f—king stupid f—king ignorant high school kids” in the original TikTok video just before he hurls the smoothie at an employee, just missing her head.
The original video was posted by @cjjbreezy, but her account has been since banned. In the original caption, she states: “he was saying racist slurs and screaming at my coworker a minute before I started recording. if anyone sees this in Fairfield pls send a message". Multiple people are heard saying to call the police. The employee he threw the smoothie at and Iannazzo begins screaming at each other even more, and he yells “f—king immigrant loser” before attempting to open a staff door to reach the workers.
Another account, which goes by @thatdaneshguy screen recorded the original video and posted it on his own profile where it has amassed over two million likes, and twenty-one million views. In a follow up video from @cjjbreezy (also reposted by @thatdaneshguy), the employee who was the target of the thrown smoothie and xenophobic remarks says she was unharmed, and the police will not consider it assault.
Iannazzo left soon afterward before police arrived, but was identified soon afterward. He turned himself in without incident to the police. During the investigation, employees reported that Iannazzo never mentioned his son’s peanut allergy to them, but had mentioned that he didn’t want peanut butter in the drink according to People.
In a statement after his arrest, Iannazzo deeply regrets his actions, and relays the severe allergic reaction his son had after drinking the smoothie. He then goes on to state that he wishes the Robek’s employees would have been more careful preparing his son’s drink.
After the video went viral, Merrill Lynch put out a statement saying that “Our company does not tolerate behavior of this kind” and fired him on Sunday according to CNBC. Iannazzo had been employed at Merrill Lynch since 1995.
Iannazzo is now facing charges of intimidation based on bias, breach of peace, and criminal trespass. He has not entered pleas to the charges. He will appear in Bridgeport Superior Court on February 7th.
Photo: Fairfield Police Department / Facebook
