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Stephen Breza “became belligerent when he was told to wear a mask inside the Wawa store” on Route 37 late Saturday morning, state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said Monday.
Breza “started screaming, flailing his arms, and cursing at employees, [then] threatened a customer in the store that he was going to hit him with a pipe,” Grewal said.
He screamed at responding officers and resisted arrest, then was released after being ticketed.
A little over two hours later, Breza went to another Wawa three miles up the highway and again refused to wear a mask, Grewal said.
This time, he punched a customer in the face, then went to his car and retrieved a metal pipe that he “wielded menacingly,” the attorney general said.
This time police sent him to the nearby Ocean County Jail to await a detention hearing in Central Judicial Processing Court in Toms River.
They charged Breza with two counts each of violating state of emergency orders, disorderly conduct, and failing to submit to fingerprinting.
Breza, who had a prior record of assaults, also was charged with resisting arrest in the first instance and making terroristic threats, as well as weapons possession in the second.
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ALSO SEE: A Jersey Shore driver was drunk when his SUV knocked down two highway traffic lights in a row before careening across oncoming traffic and catching fire, authorities said Monday.
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