Customer Threatens To Shoot Up Salt Lake City Store Over Mask Requirement
Apr 11, 2021, 10:06 PM | Updated: Jul 11, 2023, 11:41 pm
SALT LAKE CITY – One Salt Lake City business closed its doors early after they received a violent threat from a customer who refused to wear a mask.
It happened around noon Sunday at The Stockist, a specialty clothing store in the 9th and 9th shopping district.
When the man refused to wear a mask, employees asked him to leave. That’s when he said he’d be back with a gun to shoot everyone there.
“This is a community store,” said Josh Edgar. “We’ve been here for 10 years and we have really felt proud to serve 9the and 9th.”
Edgar said The Stockist is typically bustling with customers on a Sunday afternoon, but not after what happened.
“We decided to shut the store down just for the safety of us and the neighborhood,” said Edgar. “He was definitely coming here to put up a fuss about the mask mandate and we were targeted because of that.”
The man walked into the store with a mask around his chin. Edgar said when he asked the man to put it on properly, the man got upset and started swearing.
“Then one thing led to another and I eventually had to ask him to leave the store,” said Edgar. “As he was leaving the store, he was still yelling profanities at us and he said he was going to come back with a gun and shoot us all.”
The suspect walked off, but left two employees and 7-8 customers very shaken up.
“It was shocking for most customers. This is definitely an extreme example of somebody being upset by the mask mandate, probably the most extreme example possible,” said Edgar. “It was pretty scary for everyone in the store.”
Utah’s statewide mask mandate ended Saturday, but The Stockist has chosen to keep requiring masks for the safety of their customers.
Employees never expected anyone to get this upset about it.
“Just being a small business, every single day is important to us. We come here and we work really, really hard, and to have an entire day of sales taken away from us just because we don’t know if someone is serious about coming here and shooting the store up is awful,” said Edgar.
Employees did call the police, but were frustrated an officer couldn’t come out because they had higher priority calls.
No arrests have been made yet.
Anyone with information about the suspect has been asked to contact the Salt Lake City Police Department.
