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‘Not handling the pandemic well’: Man fires at officers with AK-47 after refusing to wear a mask, police say

August 3, 2020 at 3:51 a.m. EDT
Adam Zaborowski, 35, opened fire at the staff of a cigar store in Bethlehem Township, Pa., after he refused to wear a mask in the store, police say. (via WFMZ)

When a cigar shop clerk told Adam Zaborowski on Friday he had to wear a mask in the shop, the 35-year-old angrily refused. Instead, he grabbed two stogies, stormed outside — and then pulled a handgun and shot at the clerk, Bethlehem Township, Pa., police said.

The next day, cornered near his home, Zaborowski allegedly fired at police with an AK-47, sparking a wild shootout with at least seven officers that ended with him shot multiple times and under arrest.

The case is the latest violent incident tied to arguments over mandatory mask orders. But Zaborowski’s reaction was driven by his own intense difficulty with the pandemic, his attorney claimed; before the shootout, Zaborowski had lost his job and had also recently lost custody of his child.

“He just wasn’t dealing well with the loss of his job, the loss of his child, just not handling the pandemic well,” John Waldron told the Express-Times on Sunday, while noting those factors didn’t justify his violent conduct. “I think he was getting stretched too tight.”

When states first began lifting coronavirus lockdown measures in the summer, tensions around face masks had been mounting since the CDC first recommended them. (Video: The Washington Post, Photo: Sarah Hashemi/The Washington Post)

In recent weeks, police say arguments over masks have led to the vicious beating of Trader Joe’s employees in New York, the fatal shooting of a Family Dollar store security guard in Michigan, and the shooting of a McDonald’s worker in Oklahoma. That violence adds more challenges for retail stores and restaurants where workers are left to dictate mask rules that authorities often haven’t given police the option to enforce.

Zaborowski’s alleged rampage started Friday morning at Cigars International in Bethlehem Township, where he adamantly argued he didn’t have to wear a mask, even after a clerk offered to serve him curbside.

Instead, Zaborowski pulled out a sheet of paper to point out a line in Pennsylvania state law that he insisted proved he didn’t have to wear a mask, a witness to the scene told WFMZ. In fact, Pennsylvania, which has had more than 113,000 cases of covid-19 and more than 7,200 deaths, made masks mandatory in most locations outside of the home starting July 1.

“It’s crazy,” said Tom Gallagher, who was shopping in the store at the time. “It’s the mask. The guy was obviously anti-mask.”

At least 151,000 people have died from coronavirus in the U.S.

After Zaborowski walked out without paying for his cigars, police say he fired his gun once in the air and twice at a clerk who confronted him outside. Multiple customers were also sitting outside the shop in the direction he fired.

The next morning, police and state troopers were waiting to arrest Zaborowski outside his home in Slatington, Pa., when he hopped in a truck and drove off, police told the Express-Times. When they stopped him nearby, he jumped out of the vehicle and started firing at police with the AK-47 and a semiautomatic handgun, the Morning Call reported.

“Both the Slatington Borough officer and troopers returned fire and struck Zaborowski,” State Trooper Nathan Branosky said in a news release.

Zaborowski was hit in the buttocks and leg, Waldron said, and is expected to recover.

“The fact that he got shot twice with non-life-threatening injures when he had an AK-47 and another handgun, Adam is very fortunate he ended up the way he did,” Waldron told the Express-Times.

He is now charged with 22 counts including attempted homicide, aggravated assault and robbery, the Express-Times reported, and is being held on $1 million bail.