Vincent Scavetta Lake Worth Beach, Florida man who pulled gun on Christopher Estrada at a Royal Palm Beach Walmart store after being asked to wear mask charged.
A Florida man who who was caught on surveillance video pulling a gun on a Walmart shopper after being asked to wear a face mask amid the ongoing coronavirus has been arrested.
Vincent Bruce Scavetta, 28, was booked on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon – a third-degree felony and improper exhibition of a firearm after pulling the weapon on fellow shopper, Christopher Estrada, 46, at a Royal Palm Beach Walmart outlet on July 12, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office announced in a release on Thursday.
‘Welcome to PBC Jail, son,’ deputies tweeted. ‘Let this be a lesson. It could have ended badly.’
Scavetta, of Lake Worth Beach, was pushing his father in a wheelchair when Estrada, of West Palm Beach, who was shopping with his young daughter, asked him to put on a mask due to COVID-19, according to an arrest report obtained by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Estrada said Scavetta launched into an expletive-laced tirade before aiming the handgun at his head and threatening to shoot. ‘I’ll kill you,’ Scavetta told Estrada, according to the report.
Stressed out exchange
Scavetta and his father then left the Walmart after the confrontation subsided. Sheriff officials later released screenshots of the surveillance video to identify him, the Sun-Sentinel reports.
Scavetta later contacted deputies to give his version of events and turned in his handgun as evidence and provided investigators with a valid concealed-carry permit, according to the arrest report.
Scavetta, who said he took off his mask inside the store because it got wet outside during a storm, accused Estrada of hitting him with an umbrella, the report states.
But Scavetta later admitted he wasn’t sure if he was hit due to the stress associated with the incident. Estrada, meanwhile, told deputies he did raise his umbrella toward Scavetta during the gun threat, but couldn’t recall if his umbrella actually hit the man, deputies said.
Scavetta, who was arrested Wednesday, was released from the Palm Beach County Jail after posting $15,000 bond, online records show.
Scavetta has been ordered to have no contact with Estrada and to surrender any firearms he owned.
The man’s arrest is the latest public spectacle involving disputes in the United States over wearing a mask as the health pandemic continues to rage on, with incidents previously leading to individuals being beaten, spat at, bitten, verbally abused, harassed and even shot to death.
