Police in suburban St. Louis are conducting an internal review after ten black college students were wrongly accused of dining and dashing at IHOP on a $62 tab.
According to the Associated Press, the students, who are all incoming freshman at Washington University, were stopped by two officers around 12:30 a.m. on July 8 while they were walking to a MetroLink station after dining at the IHOP in Clayton, Missouri. Police chief Kevin Murphy said the restaurant manager had informed police that a group of young black men left without paying.
The students—some of whom were carrying to-go bags and showed receipts to prove they paid for their meal—agreed to return to the IHOP to speak with the manager, the AP reports. The university, which is backing the students as they were on campus for a five-week summer program designed to help them transition to college life, said in a statement to the AP that six squad cars escorted the students back to the restaurant. Murphy said it was four police cars.
Stephanie Peterson, a spokesperson for IHOP, tells PEOPLE in a statement that two groups of young men dined in the restaurant that evening, one of which paid for their meal and another that didn’t. She said that upon this group’s return to the restaurant, management “immediately informed officers” that they had the wrong customers and confirmed that they had paid for their meal.
“For 60 years, IHOP has been a welcoming and safe place for those in our communities,” Peterson said, “and we continue to strive to be a place where all people feel comfortable.”
Authorities then informed the group they were free to leave, but the incident sparked backlash from the students’ parents and the university.
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“The fact that these ten students, all of whom are African American, were scared and humiliated is unacceptable to us,” Washington University vice chancellor for public affairs Jill Friedman told the AP in a statement. “It is extremely disappointing that they have been so seriously let down, even before the official start of their first semester,” she added.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Rob Wild, the associate vice chancellor for student transition and engagement, said the students were “shaken and upset” and that the group “did not really appear to fit the description of the suspects other than being black.”
“This is obviously extremely disappointing,” Wild told the news outlet. “Not how any of us would like to welcome our new students.”
According to the Post-Dispatch, Murphy offered to meet with the students and, while he did apologize for the incident, he told the AP that this specific IHOP location has reported 45 instances of customers skipping out on their tabs this year. “I’m not sure how you handle the situation differently when you’re called for service,” he said.
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