Alton Ashby was standing barefaced inside a Best Buy in Vero Beach, Fla., on Saturday when an employee at the Geek Squad counter approached and asked him to put on a mask. Ashby refused, police say.
Instead, according to an arrest affidavit, Ashby proceeded to “cough, sneeze and spit” all over the counter and around the store.
“We had customers leave due to the incident and we have to now sanitize all of Geek Squad and [sic] home department,” Steve Abidin, a Best Buy employee, told the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office following the incident.
The 51-year-old Palm Bay resident eventually left, only to be pulled over by police and arrested for disorderly conduct.
Palm Bay man accused of coughing, spitting at Best Buy after refusing to wear mask https://t.co/yAyxRsESTz
— WESH 2 News (@WESH) December 9, 2020
Florida, which has had about 1.1 million coronavirus cases and more than 19,700 deaths, according to The Washington Post coronavirus tracker, does not having a mask mandate. But Indian River County instituted a mask requirement in July and extended the order last month. Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has banned local governments from enforcing mask mandates. But because Best Buy as a company requires masks, the governor’s order doesn’t apply.
The Florida incident is the latest case of confrontations over mask rules leading to criminal charges. In September, an 80-year-old man in West Seneca, N.Y., died days after another man allegedly shoved him for asking him to wear a mask in a bar. In October, two sisters in Chicago allegedly attacked a shoe store guard, stabbing him 27 times after he asked them to wear a face covering.
The incident in Vero Beach happened around noon on Saturday, police said, when Ashby arrived at the store for a tech support appointment.
Annemarie Tolno-Foster, a Best Buy employee working as part of the Geek Squad, asked Ashby to put on a mask. When he said no, police said, a manager, Elizabeth Simplice, offered him masks to choose from, according to the arrest affidavit.
“He pulled them all out onto the floor,” Tolno-Foster told the sheriff’s office, referring to the masks. “We told him to pick it up, but he got rude.”
Ashby eventually put on a mask, but just as quickly pulled it down after he accused the staff of “not being nice or polite to him,” Tolno-Foster said.
The three employees interviewed by the sheriff’s deputy said they then watched Ashby cough and spit on the Geek Squad counter and then continue doing the same around the store.
“He wiped his hands on shelves and kept denying to leave when I asked,” Tolno-Foster said.
Abidin then called the sheriff’s office, noting that staff members didn’t feel comfortable approaching the angry customer.
Ashby walked to the front of the store and sprayed a bottle of Coca-Cola “all over,” Abidin said, as he exited and drove off in a red Cadillac sedan.
When a sheriff’s deputy pulled over Ashby, he asked him what had happened at Best Buy. Ashby denied any noteworthy incident, saying that “nothing happened” and that he was unhappy with “the service he received,” according to the arrest affidavit.
But Ashby soon changed his story, police said. “Alton stated that he was upset and is going through a lot this year and got carried away at the store,” the sheriff’s deputy wrote.
After Ashby was arrested, he was booked that evening at the Indian River County Jail in Vero Beach. He posted a $500 cash bond that same day, according to jail records. It’s not clear from court records if he has an attorney.