Brooklyn Man Charged With Inciting Riot In Connection With McDonald's Brawl

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police have arrested the man who they say recorded video of last week's brawl at a Brooklyn McDonald's.

Amir McCants, 24, of Brooklyn, was escorted by police out of the 88th Precinct station house on Tuesday, CBS2's Ilana Gold reported.

McCants has been charged with inciting a riot.

He is the man heard in the video repeatedly yelling "kill him," referring to a Good Samaritan who tried to break up a fight in the fast food restaurant, police said.

The fight took place around 3 p.m. Thursday at the McDonald's on the Flatbush Avenue Extension in Downtown Brooklyn. Teenage girls can be seen on the video punching and pulling each other's hair and rolling around on the floor for several minutes.

A man is then seen stepping into the fray trying to break it up.

"Back up. Do not fight," he says.

That's followed by some back and forth shoving, and the man appears to throw a punch, at which point the crowd turns on him, and he is mobbed by teens throwing punches.

The man, 43-year-old Iver Whittingham, runs out of the McDonald's, and the video's narrator, believed to be McCants, can be heard shouting: "Kill him! Why're you not killing him? Y'all gotta kill that old n—-! Y'all gotta kill him! Kill him! Kill him! Kill him right now! Kill him right now! Kill him!"

Caution: Graphic content including language and violence

"If you are encouraging a certain number of people to commit violent acts, then you're potentially committing the crime," explained criminal defense attorney Stuart Slotnick.

Slotnick, who has no involvement in the case, said there is a limit on free speech.

"You can't go into a movie theater and yell fire. You also can't tell people to commit violent crimes against others," he said.

When CBS2's Ilana Gold asked McCants if he had anything to say to the victim, he responded Tuesday, "I'm sorry."

Three other suspects have been arrested.

Kendale Hamilton, 18, has been charged with gang assault in the attack on Whittingham. And Asjaney Naraine, 16, has been charged with assault in connection with the initial fight with another girl.

The fourth suspect was taken into custody Tuesday. Authorities arrested a teenage girl for her alleged involvement in the beating of Whittingham.

Police said they're still looking for another suspect.