An Old City restaurant worker was killed in an altercation over a cheesesteak

On a sunny Saturday last month on a highly-trafficked corridor of Market Street, an Old City restaurant worker was attacked after he and his boss confronted a man who was sitting at one of their outdoor tables with a cheesesteak from the spot next door.

The worker, Brian Adams, 34, went into a coma after being punched in the head several times outside his workplace, Big Ass Slices Bar & Grill.

Ten days later, on May 7, he died.

Weeks after the incident, his loved ones are still trying to understand how he could lose his life while just trying to do his job.

“He was a sweet guy,” said his father, Bob Adams. “He was not a fighter. He was not hired as bouncer there.”

Jeff Bergman, owner of Big Ass Slices, declined to comment.

“I don’t think it’s the world’s business what happened to Brian,” he said.

Police records and security camera footage viewed by The Inquirer shed light on the altercation.

On April 27 at 12:17 p.m., Philadelphia police responded to a call about a fight between “loiterers and employees” outside Big Ass Slices, according to police records obtained by The Inquirer. Officers were told Adams had a seizure after being punched and hit with a bottle on the back of his head, the records said.

The security camera footage shows two men leaving Sonny’s, a cheesesteak shop two doors down Market Street, with bags of food and sitting at a table outside Big Ass Slices after seeing no available seating outside the cheesesteak shop. Bergman is pictured in the soundless video unloading his double-parked car and heading into his restaurant, when he stops and speaks to the two men. One of the men leaves his food and goes back into Sonny’s.

Bergman returns to speak to the man who’s still seated at the table, pointing and gesturing, on the video. Bergman leaves then comes back out with Adams, who speaks to the man, who is now standing. Bergman is on his phone. He takes a chair from the man’s table and moves it to another table. The man lunges at Bergman. Bergman removes another chair from the table.

Then Adams reaches for the man’s cheesesteak. The man punches Adams several times. He swings at Bergman but misses. Bergman flips over the table, scattering the man’s food.

Bergman retrieves a bat from the restaurant.

Adams takes a few steps toward the restaurant and collapses at its door.

The confrontation lasted about five minutes.

The police arrested Demier Klevitch-Gay, 29, of Albany, N.Y., on May 17, according to a police document. He was arrested for assault, said District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Dustin Slaughter, and charges may change when the medical examiner determines cause of death.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is also investigating, the U.S. Department of Labor confirmed.

Christina Holland, general manager at Sonny’s, said it’s a reality of the neighborhood’s busy tourist area that people will sit at tables without having purchased anything from her business, but her staff lets it be.

“We don’t kick people off our tables,” Holland said.

In his twenties, Adams, a Temple graduate, worked as middle school teacher in the Northeast, his father said, and later found his way into the restaurant industry. He worked at Sonny’s for four years, where his coworkers called him Flaco, said Holland, “because he was so skinny.”

Adams usually came by for a citywide special at Big Ass Slices after his shift at Sonny’s, said Isabelle Heller, former general manager at the pizza place. Earlier that year, he got hired as a cook and a cashier at Big Ass Slices.

Holland said Adams loved the restaurant industry. “This was his calling,” she said.

Adams’ father said his son seemed to be thriving in his job, remembering how he had bought tickets for them to see Bruce Springsteen — tickets that were expensive, his father said.

“He wanted to let me know he was doing OK, you know?” he said. “That made me happy.”

Last November, Adams got engaged to his girlfriend of three years, Hayley Hampton.

Hampton, 30, said Adams was silly, sarcastic, and smart all at the same time. He took pride in his work. And he never thought twice about making accommodations for Hampton, who is visually impaired.

She said she’s still in shock.

“I don’t know why this happened or what makes it make sense,” she said.

Newsroom researcher Ryan W. Briggs contributed to this article.