Dunkin' customer threw hot coffee on maskless man, cops say

BROOKLINE, Mass. - A Dunkin' Donuts customer is accused of going way too far in trying to enforce an indoor mask mandate in Massachusetts. 

Dion Milsap, 23, is accused of throwing a cup of hot coffee at a man who wasn't wearing a mask inside a Dunkin' store on Harvard Street in Brookline on Thursday morning. 

Police said the drama all started when Milsap called out a 56-year-old man next to him in line who wasn't wearing a mask. The maskless man pulled his shirt over his face to deescalate the tension but that didn't work, the police report said. 

The two went back and forth, and then the 56-year-old man said he felt something hit his legs and realized that Milsap had tossed his coffee at him, police said.

But Milsap's lawyer, Ian Henchy, said this incident "has been blown way out of proportion" and that his client is homeless and was supposed to start a new job that day.

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"Certainly being brought to lock up and being arraigned in front of the media, Brookline District Court was not how he planned for this day to go," Henchy told reporters outside the courthouse. "He does have a 5-year-old son and that was his main concern when I was talking to him was just 'I have to get out of here — I was supposed to pick up my kid.'"

Officers responding to a 911 call went after Milsap, who refused to cooperate, police said. 

"The officers pursued him and ultimately had to physically restrain him by bringing him to the ground. While on the ground the defendant continued to resist by placing his hands under his body and refusing to allow officers to handcuff him as well as kicking his feet," the police report stated, as read in court. "During the incident, the arresting officer did suffer an injury to his left hand."

Henchy said this should be no more serious than a disorderly conduct case.