A Florida man has been charged with spitting on a female security guard at Walt Disney World last month after the woman asked him to put on a face covering, according to reports.
Kelly McKin, 51, of North Palm Beach faces one count of battery on a uniformed security officer, according to an arrest report released Monday.
The February confrontation at Disney’s most popular theme park echoes an all-too-familiar reprisal during the pandemic era where theme park employees, retail workers and restaurant employees have had the unenviable task of enforcing mask policies over the past year.
The security officer, Kristen Goldstein, first approached McKin outside Disney’s Contemporary Resort and asked him to put on a mask, as park rules required.
McKin reportedly told the officer that he planned to put on a mask once he was inside the building. But Goldstein informed the man that Disney policy required masks be worn at all times.
That’s when McKin told the woman to leave him alone and spit on her before walking back into the resort, The Associated Press reported.
Some of the man’s saliva hit the officer’s forehead, according to the police report.
The incident was captured on security cameras, and a bulletin was issued for McKin’s arrest. The next day, a Disney worker recognized the man and he was immediately taken into custody.
McKin denied spitting on the woman, telling an Orange County Sheriff’s deputy that he had a conversation with the security officer and entered the building without incident.
“I asked Kelly if he spat on Kristen or if he spat in the general direction of Kristen, and he replied he did not, and was adamant he did not spit on her,” Deputy Patrick Strawn wrote in his report.
McKin has been permanently banned from the theme park, reports said.
Attempts to reach him at a phone number listed in the arrest report were unsuccessful.
The ongoing requirement to wear a mask became highly politicized after the coronavirus was declared a global pandemic in the final year of President Donald Trump’s tenure, during which time the commander in chief mostly refused to wear one.
In early May, three people were charged in the shooting death of a Family Dollar security guard in Michigan who asked customers to wear masks as they entered the store.
Just days later, three employees of an Oklahoma City McDonald’s restaurant were shot after telling a 32-year-old female customer that the dining room was closed as a pandemic precaution and that she wouldn’t be able to eat there.
In late July, a Pennsylvania man opened fire on a store clerk who asked him to wear a face mask and then allegedly opened fire with an AK-47 assault rifle when authorities showed up to arrest him the next day.
Before that, two men got into a brawl with Trader Joe’s employees for not wearing face masks inside the store.
Then in August, a 17-year-old employee at the Sesame Place children’s theme park near Philadelphia needed a tooth removed and double jaw surgery after he was punched in the face for asking two guests to wear face masks.
