NI hotel says police investigating hackers behind ‘George Floyd cocktail offer’

It comes after a message appeared on the venue’s account saying it had created a new cocktail called the ‘George Floyd’.

The Facebook message added that the new drink will “leave you gasping for air”.

This is a reference to the death of George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis, USA.

Benedicts went on to remove this message, and said: “Folks we can only profoundly apologise for anything that has been said on our page this evening.

“Someone has hacked our page and we have reported this to Facebook immediately.

“We are sickened and disgusted at this post!!”

Mr Floyd was arrested by police investigating a fraud, was taken from the driving seat of a car and cuffed.

He was high on the opiate fentanyl at the time and appeared hysterical, with an officer saying he had foam around his mouth, and he ultimately ended up being pinned down by an officer who kneeled on his neck.

His death sparked widespread protests and violence (with Black Lives Matter supporters and self-described anti-fascists rioting in parts of America for over 100 days, with more deaths occurring amid the disorder).

The News Letter asked who was thought to be behind the rogue Facebook post about the cocktail.

The hotel replied: “This matter has been handed over to the police who will carry out a full investigation into this. At this moment we cannot give any further information.

“We are deeply sorry that this happened. We will post an update on our own social media platforms soon.”

The ‘George Floyd’ post was not the only negative event to have hit the hotel on Sunday.

In addition, the hotel said police had turned up at lunchtime “looking for a suspect,” before rushing away and “apologising for the misunderstanding” (the hotel said that the PSNI had visited in error, and were actually looking for another location nearby).

The PSNI said there had been an assault at a private residence in the area, and they were looking for those responsible.

“As part of our follow-up enquiries into the incident, armed response officers entered licensed premises [Benedicts] in the Shaftesbury Square area around 3pm but established that neither suspect was at that address,” said the police.

One Twitter user (Ulstergirl_) wrote: “Oh dear, not their night.”