- Police in
Florida said Wade Anton, a tourist from Texas, hurled racial slurs at an Asian woman and her children. - He also allegedly punched the woman's husband in the face multiple times.
- Anton, 54, has been arrested and charged with a hate-crime related battery.
A Texas man vacationing in Florida allegedly yelled racial slurs at an Asian woman and her children at a park on Thursday.
The man, identified by law enforcement as 54-year-old Wade Anton, has been arrested and charged with a hate-crime related battery, the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post.
Anton told the woman and her children to "go back where they came from," witnesses told officers. He also allegedly punched the woman's husband repeatedly in the face, the sheriff's office said.
"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," the sheriff's post reads.
When the husband saw Anton coming toward him, "he pulled out a handgun to protect himself," the post says. There were no serious injuries.
Anton told deputies the woman's children had been petting his dogs and ignored him when he told them not to.
He is being held on a $10,000 bond, according to WEAR-TV, an affiliate of ABC