A Hispanic bank manager in Grover Beach, California, says a customer "ambushed" him — calling him a "sp*c" while "wailing on him"(sic) in the parking lot — hours after he asked the man to wear a mask inside his Wells Fargo branch.
The bank manager, who asked to remain anonymous because he's concerned about his safety, said the man responded "aggressively" when he asked him to put on a mask inside the bank on the afternoon of Sept. 3, according to a report from SanLuisObispo.com.
The bank manager "offered one of the extra masks the bank keeps on hand for customers, to which the man became even more hostile and at one point began rooting through cabinets and drawers in the bank lobby," the newspaper reported. After the bank manager threatened to call police, the suspect said, "Well, you f*ckin' sp*c. ... I better not catch you outside," which the bank manager recalled as "famous last words."
The bank manager initially brushed off the incident, but when he went to his car at the end of his shift, the suspect was waiting for him in the parking lot. "The man grabbed him by the back and pushed him toward the small wall that lines the parking lot and began 'wailing on him,'" sic) the newspaper reported.
The bank manager fought back as a co-worker called 911. The suspect fled — and the bank manager chased him — but he eventually scaled a fence and disappeared before police arrived.
The attack sent the bank manager to the emergency room with a concussion and cuts to his head, hand and face. He has not returned to work since due to safety concerns because the suspect has not been caught.
"It's crazy," the bank manager said. "The guy went home, he plotted, he laid in wait, he ambushed me. And he called me a 'sp--.' ... Folks are pretty serious about this mask policy. It's sad, but there's a mask mandate and folks are taking it a bit too far. They're getting a bit too serious. So, you have to be careful."
Police reportedly are investigating the attack as a hate crime and battery. However, in a subsequent editorial, the newspaper took authorities to task for not being transparent about the investigation — suggesting they are trying to "shield the city from the bad press of a racist assault."
