Florida tourist verbally, physically assaults family of Asian descent

The man told authorities the attack began because the children wouldn't stop petting his dogs

OKALOOSA ISLAND, Fla. (KLKN)- A man vacationing in Florida has reportedly been charged with a hate crime after physically assaulting and verbally abusing a family of Asian descent.

The attack happened on Thursday, June 10, at about 4:15 p.m., on Okaloosa Island on the Florida panhandle about 40 minutes east of Pensacola.

Witnesses told the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office that 54-year-old Forney, Texas, tourist Wade Anton reportedly told a woman and her kids to “go back where they came from” and then made a racial slur against them.

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According to Okaloosa authorities, Anton told them the incident began because the woman’s children were petting his dogs and supposedly ignored him when he asked them to leave his dogs alone.

Allegedly, the situation escalated after that and Anton reportedly made incendiary comments to the family.

“The woman’s husband says they were all initially separated by about 25 feet during the verbal argument, but Anton ran around the park railings and began punching him repeatedly,” said the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Department in a statement on social media. “He told deputies as Anton was running towards him, he pulled a handgun to protect himself.”

Witnesses say the two men were eventually able to separate and nobody was seriously injured.

The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Department says that Anton has been charged with hate crime-related battery and is being held by the Okaloosa Department of Corrections on a $10,000 bond while he awaits a hearing.

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