CLIVE, Iowa — After photos circulated online of a man dressed as a Nazi in a bar on Halloween night, the bar owner is responding to criticism he was met with online.

The incident took place inside Miss Kitty’s Country Bar in Clive. Viewers shared some images of a man dressed in a Nazi soldier uniform embellished with a swastika and wearing a cropped mustache. The same viewer who sent those photos was also at the bar last Friday night. She sent WHO 13 News a video of herself confronting the bar owner about the man’s costume where the owner appears to defend the man wearing the garb.

“Do you know that you have a guest here with an actual Nazi costume on,” said the patron in the video.

“Yeah, but I am not doing anything about it,” E.J. Myer, the bar owner, replied.

“You’re okay with Nazis being here,” said the patron.

Myers responded again responded, “No, but it’s a costume.”

After that interaction, Myers said he went back into his office and sat for a couple of minutes. After that time alone he said that he came to the realization that the man dressed up was obviously creating a situation where people were uncomfortable. He went to go meet the individual over by the patio door, where Myers said he was already leaving. Myers told the individual dressed as a Nazi, “I think your costume is creating too much controversy,” while he was walking out. Myers said he walked out of the bar with him.

On Monday, Myers spoke with WHO 13 News about his regret for how the situation unfolded, and how he responded to the patron that recorded him.

“It wasn’t the right response, I probably should have just said ‘Thank you for making me aware. Give me a few minutes and I’ll take care of it,” said Myers. “It wasn’t the right response.”

Myers said the confrontation on video happened after he just walked through the bar to his office to get things in order for the costume competition. He said he did see an individual dressed in a uniform, but had not seen the swastika before the interaction on camera.

“I didn’t see the swastika. He just looked like a guy in kind of a black suit,” said Myers. “I want to apologize to everyone who it offended and it certainly was not my intention. And we genuinely support a lot of things, whether it be trans or gay or whatever. They’re all welcome. And I don’t want people to feel like they have to worry about something like that. So we will certainly address that issue moving forward.”

Myers said that policies in the bar will be changed moving forward. He didn’t outline specifics on what would change, just articulating that something like this will not happen again.

Myers added that he has gotten numerous death threats over the weekend since the incident. Business has already been lost, a Latin dance group usually goes there on Sunday night, but the group changed its schedule. A few bands rescheduled for a later date because of doubt of a turnout.

Myers also said that he has had between a thousand to two thousand people reach out over the weekend saying they still support the business.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines talked with WHO 13 News on Monday, outlining the organization’s disgust for the events over the weekend.

“It’s not just a costume, it’s a hate symbol,” said Jarad Bernstein, Executive Director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines. “Put it in a different context: if this person had decided to show up dressed in blackface, what would the reaction be?”

Bernstein said that he first learned of the incident on Saturday afternoon at his daughter’s birthday and his first thoughts were that someday she will have to learn about people who hate Jews. Incidents like these always cause the community to have a heightened sense of security.