A man has been charged after an 80-year-old died following a bar argument over not wearing a face mask.
Donald Lewinski, 65 from New York was arrested on Monday after he allegedly shoved Rocco Sapienza to the ground, authorities said.
The defendant has been walking through Pamp's Red Zone Bar & Grill in West Seneca when he was confronted by the victim for not wearing a face covering, according to Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn.
The two men appeared to get into an argument and the pair also disagreed over the treatment of a staff member, Mr Flynn said.
"These two were butting heads from minute one," he added.
CCTV showed Mr Sapienza getting up from a barstool and approach the defendant.
"[Lewinski] pushed him with two hands." Mr Flynn said.
Following the fall, the pensioner had a seizure and lost consciousness.
He died days later from a "blunt force trauma to the head" the district attorney said.
He added that disputes over face coverings were been seen across America.
"We see it everywhere, where people are confronting one another and having arguments about not wearing masks, and it's unfortunate that we have an incident here now in western New York where this escalated into a 80-year-old man passing away," he said.
The defendant's lawyer, Barry Covert said his client has pleaded not guilty to the charge of criminally negligent homicide.
Speaking to CNN he said: "The videotape and the witness statements that we received this evening make it very clear that Mr Sapienza was the aggressor," he said.
"He left his barstool and aggressively confronted my client.
"It's certainly a tragedy that Mr Sapienza passed away," he continued. "My client and his family want to express their best wishes and sympathy to the family of Mr Sapienza."
Mr Lewinski was released without bail on Tuesday. If found guilty he could face four years in prison.
