A Black Dunkin Donuts employee has been charged with aggravated manslaughter for fatally punching a 77-year-old white man who repeatedly used a racial slur toward him during an altercation. 

Corey Pujols, 27, who was working at the restaurant chain on May 4, allegedly punched the elderly man who then fell backward and hit his head on the concrete floor. The punch left the man unconscious, a Tampa Police Department report read, according to ABC News. 

When authorities came to the scene of the restaurant chain located at a gas station in Tampa, the customer was bleeding from his head and transported to Tampa General Hospital’s intensive care unit. The man, whose name wasn’t released due to privacy concerns, died just two days later on Friday.  

The unidentified man, who reports state was a regular customer, was at the drive-thru window in his car, visibly upset at the service, Newsweek reported. Instead of leaving the premises as he was asked, the man came into the store and began arguing with Pujols who was the store manager.

According to Pujols, the victim was rude prior to their verbal altercation. The store manager said he confronted the elderly man after hearing him use a racial slur only for the victim to then repeat it a second time.  

The description of the man’s racial slur was not disclosed, according to the Tampa Police report.    

According to an autopsy report, the customer suffered a skull fracture and brain contusions as a result of blunt trauma, ABC News reported. His death was later ruled a homicide by a doctor at the Hillsborough Medical Examiner’s Office. 

Pujols was taken to jail on Tuesday and remains in custody without bail. His charge carries a maximum prison sentence of up to 30 years. A public defender will soon be appointed to represent him, the Orlando Sentinel reported. 

Black people being called racial slurs at work, however, is not an untold tale. In March 2021, a white woman in New York called a bakery employee a “b***h ass n-word” in front of her kids after he refused to serve her for not wearing a mask. As Blavity previously reported, the father, who is Black, said he feared for his children’s wellbeing in light of the mother’s actions.    

In Nov. 2020, Black state employees in Sacramento, California found racial slurs written on notes left on their desks, according to The Sacramento Bee. They were offered paid time off and resources for coping with trauma.