Police Arrest Two People at Fresno Diner Defying Stay-at-Home Order on Mother’s Day
FRESNO, CALIFORNIA – In a surprising turn of events, police arrested at least two individuals after a confrontation ensued at a diner in Fresno, California. The diner had boldly defied the stay-at-home order imposed by local lawmakers.
The Waffle Shop, located in Fresno, was the center of this controversy. As eager diners stood in line, police officers arrived at the scene, aiming to enter the restaurant and enforce the stay-at-home order. However, the diners refused to comply with the officers’ instructions, leading to a tense standoff.
In an attempt to gain access to the restaurant, officers resorted to using force, pushing aside the patrons who refused to move. This escalated the situation, resulting in the arrest of at least two individuals who were taken into police custody.
One eyewitness, Jim Fisher, captured the entire incident on video and shared it on Facebook. Expressing his disappointment, Fisher wrote, “Disgraceful on Mother’s Day.”
The most prominent of those taken into custody was later identified as 73-year-old Tom Miller Sr., who was waiting in line for a Mother’s Day breakfast with his wife. His son, Nate Miller, filmed Tom and his wife being escorted away in handcuffs toward a patrol vehicle, and Tom Sr. afterward showed the marks the handcuffs left on his wrists. Fresno Police would later draw a distinction between a detainment and a formal arrest, stating that Miller was detained for obstructing an officer rather than booked, and that he was released without any charges being filed.
The Waffle Shop’s owner, Ammar Ibrahim, had made a conscious decision to reopen his business for the weekend, defying the local stay-at-home orders. Despite receiving a warning from the city’s code enforcement department and the potential consequences he could face, Ibrahim stood firm in his belief that reopening was a matter of “principles and rights.” He said he had been inspired to unlock his dining room after attending a “Freedom Rally” outside Fresno City Hall, telling reporters he had lost well over $500,000 in sales during roughly two months of closure.
Reports from Fox26 indicate that the diners at the Waffle Shop were practicing social distancing, and the restaurant staff were diligently wearing face masks as per CDC guidelines. However, these precautions did not deter the authorities from taking action.
Last Friday, Ibrahim was issued a hefty fine of $1,000, with the city warning that the amount could be increased to $10,000. To add to his troubles, the restaurant’s water supply was abruptly shut off shortly after the fine was issued. Although the City of Fresno denies any involvement in the water supply issue, it remains a point of contention. A $5,000 citation followed for the Sunday on which the confrontation took place, and his customers reportedly pooled together cash on the spot to cover the original $1,000 penalty before the code enforcement officer had even finished writing it.
Interestingly, among the diners present at the Waffle Shop that day was Councilmember Garry Bredefeld, a vocal critic of the city’s stay-at-home orders. Bredefeld expressed his disappointment in his fellow councilmembers, accusing them of betraying their constituents and disregarding their oath to uphold the Constitution. The following Monday, Bredefeld held a press conference in front of the restaurant alongside Ibrahim, laying out a six-point plan for reopening the city and calling on Mayor Lee Brand to lift Fresno’s shelter-in-place order.
Hours after that press conference, Fresno Police Chief Andy Hall responded by releasing the officer’s body-camera footage of the Sunday encounter. Hall said that after a full review the officer appeared to have been acting lawfully while assisting code enforcement, and that Miller had obstructed the officer when he refused repeated requests to step aside. At the same time, Hall acknowledged that he had given his officers clear direction to seek voluntary compliance and to make no arrests over the shelter-in-place order without his approval through the chain of command, which had not happened in this case. He ordered an Internal Affairs investigation into how the incident was handled, and the department subsequently announced its officers would no longer accompany code enforcement on such citations.
Ibrahim ultimately chose to fight the penalties rather than pay them, arguing during his appeal hearing that an emergency order allowing “essential” businesses to stay open while shuttering his dining room violated his constitutional rights. In January 2021, a hearing officer rejected that argument and ruled that roughly $6,000 in COVID-related penalties against the Waffle Shop were justified, noting that two code enforcement officers had testified to witnessing indoor dining on May 7, 8 and 10, and that Ibrahim himself admitted offering it on those dates. Far from backing down, Ibrahim kept his dining room open through later rounds of restrictions, defying Governor Gavin Newsom’s December 2020 stay-at-home order and collecting additional citations along the way. “It’s been worth all the fines,” he said at the time. “Nine months later, I’m still afloat and I’m still in business. If I closed my doors, I would have lost everything.”
The confrontation at the Waffle Shop highlights the ongoing debate surrounding the balance between public health and individual rights during these challenging times. The standoff became one of the most widely shared images of pandemic-era pushback in California, and the saga continued to evolve in the years that followed. The original Waffle Shop on Figarden Drive was eventually sold to a new owner and closed its doors in 2023, by which point Ibrahim had already opened a new breakfast spot, Daddy Waffles, at Herndon and Marks avenues. The episode remains a touchstone in the larger story of how far businesses and customers were willing to go to push back against lockdown enforcement, and how those decisions reshaped the rights and risks faced by business owners in Fresno and beyond.
