(CNN) The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating an incident recorded on video and widely shared on social media that shows security staff forcefully removing transgender patrons from a downtown bar on Friday.

A group of eight employees from Bienestar Human Services, which focuses on health issues in Latino and LGBTQ communities, were celebrating at Las Perlas bar after the first day of a local LGBTQ festival when a couple began directing "transphobic slurs" at their table, Khloe Rios told CNN.

An image from the video taken during the incident

Rios is the manager of Transgeneros Unidas, the Bienestar team focused on advocacy for transgender and non-binary people.

Rios said that at first, she and her group, which included transgender women of color, gay men of color and a gender non-conforming person, told the couple to leave them alone. The two seemed drunk, Rios said, so her group didn't take them very seriously.

Then, Rios said, the man became physically aggressive toward one of her coworkers. She said her group immediately tried to protect their coworker from being harmed.

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