VIDEO: Bystander defuses shouting match at Tim Hortons in Brampton

Warning: This story contains a video with course language that may be offensive to some viewers 

It was a child’s tears that spurred a man into action when a testy shouting match broke out at a Tim Hortons in Brampton this week.

“I had to step in for the children,” Bill DiMaria-Rico told Insauga.com about the tussle he caught on camera at a Brampton Tim Hortons on Tuesday.

DiMaria-Rico is from North York but says he was in Brampton visiting friends on Tuesday when stopped into the restaurant at Main Street and Bovaird Drive around 7:30 p.m.

But while he was enjoying a coffee and a bowl of chilli he heard someone screaming from outside. That’s when he says a man “stormed in” and started to unleash an expletive-laden tongue-lashing on the female employee.

DiMaria-Rico started filming the incident on his phone and broadcast it live on X (formerly Twitter) before a couple sitting in the restaurant with children got up to ask the yelling man to calm down.

All the commotion caused the children to start crying, so DiMaria-Rico stepped in.

“I got up…I had to comfort the kids,” he told Insauga.com.

“It’s ok, it’s ok,” he can be heard saying to the children before confronting the irate customer. “He’s got his kids here and you’re swearing, right? You’ve got to be more polite…no one is going to fight,” he says to the man.

The video of the incident has been viewed nearly 4,000 times as of Thursday afternoon.

After a few more moments of back-and-forth the man appears to realise he was in the wrong and apologizes for causing a scene.

DiMaria-Rico says he was shocked to hear the man say sorry for the disturbance, which he says may have started over an incorrect order.

And while the Tim Hortons incident had a happy ending, this wasn’t the first time DiMaria-Rico has had a close call in Brampton saying he was recently followed from the Bramalea GO station and threatened by a man.

Despite the run-ins, DiMaria-Rico said he doesn’t plan to stay away from Brampton.

A Peel Regional Police spokesperson said it appears no one reported the incident and added they were glad to hear the situation had a positive outcome.

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