Man 'Not Handling the Pandemic Well' Gets in Shootout With Cops for Being Asked to Put on a Mask

We've all had our share of struggles in the last six months due to coronavirus. Everything is different. You can't do very much. It's been a difficult time for everybody.

But I think it's safe to say most people don't take out their frustrations by shooting at a store clerk who asked them to put on a mask and then proceeded to engage the police in a shootout. Pennsylvania man Adam Zaborowski is not most people.

Washington Post — 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.

Well that's definitely not a commensurate response to being asked to wear a mask. One would think a good defense for such a situation would be pretty difficult to come by, but Zaborowski's attorney John Walden said he simply was having a rough time with the pandemic.

“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.”

Not to belittle the plights of losing your job or custody of your child, but being "stretched too tight" is probably not going to hold up in court when asked why you discharged a firearm at police officers and a store clerk for being asked to put on a mask.

Zaborowski is currently being held on $1 million bail and faces 22 charges including attempted homicide and aggravated assault.