People had to leave a gym in Morro Bay for a short time on Wednesday morning after someone shot pepper spray into the building.
GA YERkes, boss of the front desk at FitnessWorks, said, “It was pretty weird.”
Yerkes’ shift started normally on Wednesday morning, and she didn’t see or hear anything odd while she was working, she said.
A man parked his bike and walked into the gym between 7:49 and 7:51 a.m., as seen on the security camera video.
Morro Bay Police Department Cmdr. Tony Mosqueda said the person was identified as Brent Peterson, a 51-year-old homeless guy who often lives in the area.
A regular member of FitnessWorks saw the suspect walk into the gym, hang out near the drinks, and then leave with something in his hand. After leaving the gym, the man put the item on a wall outside, which was caught on camera.
He told Yerkes that he thought the man had stolen a drink, so they went outside to talk to him.
“He was feeling very weak.” “He didn’t make sense,” Yerkes said.
She kept saying things like, “I don’t like you, I don’t know you.”
There was no problem when the member offered to buy the man some water. The three of them went back to the gym and bought the drink.
The suspect walked outside and showed “aggressive body language towards the gym.” He then picked up the thing he had put on the wall. Yerkes said that the police thought the item was pepper spray.
CCTV video showed that the man then leaned in through the front doors of the gym and sprayed across at the cash register. She didn’t see Yerkes use the pepper spray because he was turned away from the door.
It burned Yerkes’ nose and throat when the pepper spray hit her, and she began choking. She said she saw a cloud of spray near the door and thought it might be natural gas.
“The gym was full of whatever it was in less than 30 seconds,” she said. “Almost everyone was coughing very hard.”
Between 7:51 and 7:53 a.m., Yerkes left the gym and called 911.
“It shocked me,” she said.
She said that the Morro Bay Fire Department and Morro Bay Police Department looked into the house and found that pepper spray had been used there.
The event did not hurt anyone, and both the Police and Fire Departments said the house was safe.
It was back open by 8:45 a.m., according to Yerkes.
He was arrested by the Morro Bay Police Department for using pepper spray without a permit when he went back to the shopping center around noon, Mosqueda said.
A record from the San Luis Obispo County Jail shows that Peterson was booked in on Thursday morning without posting $20,000 bail.
