The Manhattan deli, where a worker stopped and frisked Oscar winner Forest Whitaker, apologized to the acclaimed actor and canned the “misguided employee,” store management said today.
The manager at Milano Market in Morningside Heights said he couldn’t comment any further on the firing of an employee, who accused Whitaker of lifting goods on Friday.
The now-former staffer stopped Whitaker and gave him a humiliating public pat-down because he suspected him of shoplifting. The store had earlier given a halfhearted apology.
“While we cannot delve into the employee’s mindset, we do not believe that he was racially motivated in his actions” but “simply misguided,” a store rep had earlier said.
Whitaker, who won an Oscar for his role in the 2006 flick “The Last King of Scotland,” is in town filming “Black Nativity,” co-starring Jennifer Hudson and Angela Bassett.
He says he was stopped for no reason after dropping by the deli at 2892 Broadway on his way to work to buy some yogurt and not finding what he wanted.
Whitaker’s rep declined comment this afternoon.