A California waitress has said she ‘did what needed to be done’ when she told a Silicon Valley entrepreneur he had to leave a restaurant because of his racist abuse.
Gennica Cochran, a server at Lucia restaurant in Carmel Valley, California, escorted Michael Lofthouse, 37, out of the restaurant after he yelled ‘Trump is going to f*** you’ at an Asian family enjoying a meal out on Fourth of July.
The British CEO of Solid8, a small tech company, called Jordan Chan and her family a ‘f***ing Asian piece of s**t’ during the racist tirade.
‘I felt very protective of them,’ Cochran told KGO-TV. ‘It was just something that came over me and I just did what needed to be done.
‘I did what anybody else should or would do in that situation.’
The family were celebrating a birthday at Bernardus Lodge and Spa’s Lucia restaurant on Saturday.
Gennica Cochran (pictured), a server at Lucia restaurant in Carmel Valley, escorted Michael Lofthouse, 37, out of the restaurant after he yelled ‘Trump is going to f*** you’ at an Asian family enjoying a meal out on Fourth of July
Lofthouse (pictured) was caught on camera racially attacking Jordan Chan and her family when they were out celebrating a birthday at Bernardus Lodge and Spa’s Lucia restaurant in Carmel Valley on Saturday
The shocking footage shows Lofthouse shouting racist abuse.
Within seconds Cochran, who also teaches yoga, confronted Lofthouse. She said: ‘You do not talk to a guest like that, you need to leave now.’
Within seconds Cochran (pictured), who also teaches yoga, confronted Lofthouse
Within hours of the clip causing outrage in the US, word had reached Lofthouse’s parents at their home near Morpeth, UK.
Linda Lofthouse, from rural Northumberland, spoke of the devastating impact her son’s actions had had on the family.
Tearful Mrs Lofthouse, 67, told MailOnline: ‘We are completely devastated and appalled by his behaviour.
‘All I want to say is that we apologise unreservedly to the family and to anyone else it has offended.’
Mrs Lofthouse said her son had been suffering from addiction issues and she was distraught at the thought anyone would consider her family racist.
‘We are in a dreadful situation. He is very sick – if he had cancer people would understand better but he hasn’t, he has an addiction problem.
The mother of a British tech CEO who was filmed hurling vicious racist abuse at an Asian family says she is ‘totally appalled’ by his behaviour as MailOnline can reveal his own sister-in-law is mixed race. Michael Lofthouse was pictured flipping the bird at Jordan Chan and relatives
Jenny Chan (back left) posted the footage on Instagram. The family were celebrating the birthday of Jenny’s aunt Mari Orosa (back right with Mari’s husband Raymond front right)
‘It’s just disastrous, we have been dealing with this for a long time.
Mrs Lofthouse went on to say her other son, Richard, whose wife Susanna is of Asian descent, had contacted the Chan family direct.
Lofthouse’s tearful mother Linda, 67, (above) spoke her devastation at what he had done
She said: ‘We have apologised to the family, my son has had a reply from them and they understand that we have absolutely no control over what he does. He has massive issues.’
Mrs Lofthouse said the family had tried and failed to help him: ‘We can’t have him here and none of the rest of the family can have him; he is just a loose cannon.
‘At our age we cannot handle addiction, we have tried, we have had him here and it was horrendous.
‘In no way are we racist we just don’t have anything to do with whatever he said.’
‘It happened on the fourth of July and we’ve been dealing with it ever since then. It was the social media stuff that brought it to life. We couldn’t get hold of him and we knew there was a problem, we deal with it every day.’
Mrs Lofthouse said her other son, Richard, whose wife Susanna (above) is of Asian descent, had contacted the Chan family to apologize. ‘We are completely devastated and appalled by his behavior,’ she told MailOnline
Mrs Lofthouse (pictured with husband Chris, daughter-in-law Susanna and son Richard) said her son had been suffering from addiction issues and she was distraught at the thought anyone would consider her family racist: ‘All I want to say is that we apologize unreservedly’
Lofthouse called the family a ‘f***ing Asian piece of s**t’ before an outraged Cochran stepped in and told him to ‘get out’
The Lofthouses run a successful property company and their other two sons are both respected businessmen.
Their son graduated from Newcastle Business School, which is affiliated to Northumbria University, and later moved to San Francisco to run his IT firm.
The company has a low-budget website saying it offers industry-leading cloud storage and online security for companies. It has between two and ten employees, according to LinkedIn.
In the footage, Lofthouse targets Ms Chan and her family who had been at the restaurant to celebrate her aunt Mari Orosa’s birthday.
Mari was accompanied at the restaurant by her husband, Raymond, a sales rep for a Mercedes car dealership in California.
The film began after Lofthouse had already apparently started on his unprovoked, racist abuse. The person filming told him to ‘say that again’.
‘Oh, now you’re shy,’ the person behind the camera said. ‘Say it one more time.’
Lofthouse responded by flipping his middle finger and said ‘that’s what I’m saying now’.
‘Trump’s going to f*** you!’ he then yelled, as he got up to leave the restaurant.
‘You f***ers need to leave,’ he said, before Cochran stepped in and told him ‘to leave now’.
‘Get out of here,’ the waitress shouted. ‘You are not allowed here. You do not talk to our guests like that.’
Lofthouse continued with his vile attack on the family, yelling: ‘You f***ing Asian piece of s**t.
He turned to Cochran and said: ‘Who are these f***ers?’ ‘They are valued guests,’ she responded.
Lofthouse replied: ‘Are they? They are valued guests in America?’ The waitress continued to tell him to ‘get out’ and said: ‘You are not allowed here ever again.’
Chan wrote on Instagram that the ‘white supremacist’ businessman had begun harassing her family soon after they sang happy birthday to her aunt.
Aside from the racist comments caught on camera, she said he also told them to ‘go back to whatever f****** Asian country you’re from’ and that ‘you don’t belong here’.
She added on the post that he ‘had a LOT more to say after I stopped recording’.
Lofthouse later issued a grovelling apology, telling DailyMail.com: ‘My behavior in the video is appalling. This was clearly a moment where I lost control and made incredibly hurtful and divisive comments.
‘I would like to deeply apologize to the Chan family. I can only imagine the stress and pain they feel.
‘I was taught to respect people of all races, and I will take the time to reflect on my actions and work to better understand the inequality that so many of those around me face every day.’
The Bernardus Lodge said they were sorry about the experience their guests endured at the restaurant but they were ‘proud’ of how their staff handled it.
‘This is an extremely unfortunate situation, however, we are proud of our staff at Lucia in keeping with Bernardus Lodge’s core values,’ said Sean Damery, the lodge’s vice president and general manager, in a statement to KION.
Jordan Chan (left) posted her thanks to those who have supported the family since the incident. She was celebrating her aunt Mari Orosa’s birthday (right with husband Raymond)
The Bernardus Lodge (pictured) said they were sorry about the experience their guests had at the restaurant and they were ‘proud’ of how their staff handled it
The family had been celebrating a birthday at the restaurant when the horrific abuse occurred
‘This incident was handled swiftly and the diner was escorted off property without further escalation.
‘We provide guests with a safe environment for lodging and dining, and extend our sincere apologies to the guests enjoying a birthday celebration on a holiday weekend.’
Lofthouse appears to have disabled his LinkedIn and Twitter accounts following the incident.