Police arrest man accused of breaking grocery store’s windows after being asked to wear mask

Hojun Choi
Deborah White, left, and Joshua Mahn on Thursday place a sign to let the public know that Fresh Plus in Hyde Park is open despite having its windows broken. Store employees say a man shattered the windows Wednesday after they asked him to wear a mask inside the establishment. Austin police say a man has been arrested in connection to the incident.

Austin police have arrested a man who a North Austin grocery store says broke all of the business’ windows after an employee asked him to wear a mask.

Police on Thursday told the American-Statesman that they had arrested 31-year-old Wayne Ayres in connection to the vandalism at Fresh Plus Grocer in Hyde Park.

A store manager told the Statesman that the man who broke the windows was first seen in the business about three to four days prior to the incident, which occurred around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. The manager asked not to be named in the report because of safety concerns.

The manager said employees did not feel immediately threatened by the man when he entered the store several days ago. When the man refused to wear a mask at that time, employees told him that he would need one. Though he did not respond to the request amicably, the store manager said the man returned to the store in the following days wearing a mask and was polite.

The manager said she recognized the man because he had the same clothing each of the days he came by the store.

But on Wednesday, the store manager said the man returned to the store without a mask. When employees asked him to wear a face covering and offered him a free mask, the man responded angrily, the store manager said.

“He grabbed two cases of Topo Chico's, went outside and decided that he was going to show us how he really felt and just started hurling them through the windows,” the manager said.

The store manager said the man broke all of the front windows — about eight in total — by throwing glass bottles at them. The manager said the damage, just from the windows, is estimated to cost around $20,000. They said the store is still figuring out how much of those costs will be covered by insurance.

Most of the store's fresh produce items were covered in glass Wednesday, the store manager said, and the store donated the remaining items to a local food bank.

The store was able to reopen Wednesday after employees boarded up the front windows and doors.

“Fortunately no one was hurt, there was a lot of glass everywhere. I’ve never seen so much glass in my life. It was flying every which way,” the store manager said, adding that no customers were in the store during the incident.

The manager said some people visiting the store have been upset about the mask requirement in the past few months, but said the incident was the first time that someone had escalated the situation to that level.

“We typically don’t have issues with this. This is the first person that has become extremely combative and aggressive,” they said.

Correction:This story has been updated to reflect the correct name of the man who was arrested in connection to the vandalism. The name of the person is Wayne Ayres.

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Austin police on Thursday said 31-year-old Wayne Ayres has been arrested in connection to the vandalism of a grocery store in North Austin.