Young Irish man on work visa robbed at gunpoint in Chippewa

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) – A weekend of fun turned into something a frequent visitor to the Queen City didn’t expect.

A disturbing crime was reportedly caught on camera in Buffalo’s Chippewa district.

The owners of Banshee Irish Pub on Franklin near Chippewa shared a video showing one of their employees being held up at gunpoint over the weekend.

“Me and all my buddies have been having a few drinks with the whole Buffalo Bandits team since they won the championship,” Evan Glynn told 7 News’ Pheben Kassahun Tuesday afternoon.

Evan Glynn comes from Ireland on a J-1 visa, which is a work and study based exchange visitor program.

He remembers leaving Pearl Street with his friends, then going to the Banshee Irish Pub, where he works.

“We sat down to take an Uber and out of nowhere this dude pointed his gun and started pointing it at us and asking for money and stuff,” Glynn said.

Glynn said the suspect was yelling at them and made him and his friends empty their pockets, demanding they give the man money. When they couldn’t do it, the suspect took Glynn’s phone while pointing a gun at them.

At one point, Glynn said the man hit him in the face with a gun.

“It’s shocking. It came out of nowhere,” Glynn said.

The incident happened around 4:45 a.m.

The pub usually has security during office hours, but as this happened outside of office hours the men had no backup.

Connor Hawkins, co-owner of Banshee Irish Pub, said: “It’s embarrassing because Buffalo is a city that we all live in now, and for this to happen to these Irish guys – they’re from rural Ireland and it’s not is not something they see at home.

Connor Hawkins is co-owner of Banshee Irish Pub.

He said nothing like this had ever happened to him in his 25 years living in the United States and he felt compassion for the guys.

“It’s their first weekend in Buffalo and they’re experiencing this. They’re here to enjoy their summer. They paid a lot of money to work here during the summers and having a bad experience in Buffalo is normally not like that.” Hawkins said, “There are some bad apples taking advantage of people and (hope) this doesn’t happen to anyone else. If anyone sees this video and recognizes the person, they can call the Buffalo Police Department. “

As for Glynn, he said he will just have to stay vigilant and hopes to get a new phone soon so he can stay in touch with his family in Ireland.

“We’ve always been told to be careful when we go to America and that sort of thing. In Ireland they say it can be very dangerous, but I’ve been to Buffalo a few times and we’ve never had a problem . We “I’ve always enjoyed it. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a gun,” Glynn said.

Glynn told Kassahun he was returning to Ireland in August, once his work visa expired.

Buffalo Police Department detectives are investigating the armed robbery and are asking anyone with information to call or text the confidential TIPCALL line at (716) 847-2255.