It turns out in America it's surprisingly easy to get away with pepper spraying people. There's a weird YouTube rabbit hole of "free speech auditors" who go around doing things they're legally allowed to do but are shitty to get reactions. They escalate things until they pepper spray the person they're aggravating. Even in their own videos cops show up and basically just shrug. I think the logic is that since it doesn't cause any long term damage that a lawyer can pretty easily argue it was a "reasonable force"
Short answer: I'd be surprised if he suffers any consequences from this
You couldn't make You've Got Mail today. Dating someone over email without sending pictures would be so weird that it would detract from the whole story