This archive report was first published on 25 September 2019.
On September 20, 2019, a viral video captured a heated confrontation between Alex Jamison, a vegan restaurateur, and Jon Bird, a cigarette smoker, in Salt Lake City.
According to the video, Bird had been smoking near the entrance of one of Jamison's restaurants, despite Jamison's request to leave the area. Jamison returned with a fire extinguisher and sprayed Bird in the face, causing him to experience pain, headaches, and difficulty breathing.
Bird described the incident as an assault and hired a lawyer, stating, 'I'm having a hard time breathing, my eyes [are] painful, headaches, all sorts of stuff I'm feeling that I didn't feel before.'
Jamison later posted on Facebook, stating that he had left the three vegan businesses he was involved in and acknowledged that both he and Bird were in the wrong. He wrote, 'It was small-minded thinking on both of our parts, and we both need to own it.'
