Montgomery County police are investigating the death of a man at Silver Diner in Rockville after an incident that occurred Wednesday night, police spokesperson Shiera Goff said Friday afternoon in an email to Bethesda Today.
According to radio transmissions, police and Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS) crews were dispatched to the restaurant at 12276 Rockville Pike in the Federal Plaza shopping center for the report of an assault at roughly 11:55 p.m. Wednesday. According to the restaurant’s website, the diner is open until 2 a.m. on Wednesdays.
The dispatcher said the caller reported a 40-year-old “drunken male” customer who was “upset” with the manager of the diner, according to police radio transmissions. The dispatcher said the caller said the man allegedly punched the manager, who began to bleed. The caller told the dispatcher that the customer was being held on the ground, according to radio transmissions.
At 12:07 a.m., officers reported the customer was unconscious and not breathing and that they were beginning CPR. The call was then upgraded to a cardiac arrest and MCFRS crews that were staging at the nearby station on Rollins Avenue until police secured the scene, arrived at about 12:10 a.m. and confirmed over the radio that the man was not breathing and did not have a pulse.
The man was transported to Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center, according to police radio transmissions. It is unclear when he was pronounced dead.
In a Friday statement to Bethesda Today, Silver Diner spokesperson Vicki Bendure said the customer appeared to be intoxicated and was asked to leave the diner by the manager. The man left, then returned and went behind the restaurant’s counter and assaulted the manager, according to the statement.
Diner employees restrained the customer, who then passed out, according to the statement. The employees called 911.
“We were very saddened to learn of an incident at our Rockville location that resulted in a fatality following the restraint of a customer who appeared to be intoxicated,” Bendure said in the statement. “We are working closely with the police.”
Goff said the police’s Major Crimes Division was investigating the incident and no charges have been filed as of Friday afternoon.
