SLO County gym evacuated after man shot pepper spray into the building, police say
A Morro Bay gym was briefly evacuated on Wednesday morning after a man shot pepper spray into the building.
“It was a pretty freaky thing,” FitnessWorks front desk manager Georgia Yerkes said.
Yerkes started her shift on Wednesday morning without incident, and she didn’t notice any suspicious activity while she was working, she said.
Meanwhile, security camera footage showed a man parking his bike and entering the gym between 7:49 and 7:51 a.m.
Police identified the person as Brent Peterson, a 51-year-old man experiencing homelessness who frequents the area, Morro Bay Police Department Cmdr. Tony Mosqueda said.
A regular FitnessWorks member saw the suspect enter the gym, loiter near the drink display and leave with an item in his hand. Security camera footage showed the man placing the item on a ledge outside after he left the gym.
The member told Yerkes he suspected that the man stole a drink, and they walked outside to talk with him.
“He was very mumbly. He didn’t make much sense,” Yerkes said.
He made comments, like, “I don’t like you, I don’t know you,” she repeated.
The member offered to buy the man some water — so the trio walked back into the gym and purchased the drink without incident.
When the suspect walked outside, he made an “aggressive body language towards the gym,” then picked up the item he set on the ledge. Police suspect the item was pepper spray, Yerkes said.
The man then leaned in the front doors of the gym and sprayed diagonally towards the cash register, security camera footage showed. Yerkes was facing away from the door, so she didn’t see him deploy the pepper spray.
When the pepper spray wafted her way, Yerkes felt burning in her nose and throat and started coughing. She spotted a cloud of spray near the door, and worried it might be natural gas, she said.
“Within 30 seconds or less, the gym was filled with whatever it was,” she said. “Everybody was coughing pretty violently.”
Yerkes evacuated the gym between 7:51 and 7:53 a.m. and called 911.
“It was pretty shocking,” she said.
The Morro Bay Fire Department and Morro Bay Police Department investigated the building and determined that pepper spray had been deployed there, she said.
No one was injured in the incident, and the Police and Fire Departments determined that the building was safe.
FitnessWorks re-opened by 8:45 a.m., Yerkes said.
The Morro Bay Police Department arrested Peterson on suspicion of illegal use of pepper spray when he returned to the shopping center around noon, Mosqueda said.
As of Thursday morning, Peterson was booked into the San Luis Obispo County Jail in lieu of $20,000 bail, according to the jail booking log.
This story was originally published December 5, 2024 at 10:37 AM.
