A Barnes & Noble executive apologized Monday to a Scottsdale man who was forced to leave the bookstore's children's section because he was not with any children.

Omar Amin, 73, said the incident occurred one month ago when he was shopping for books for his grandchildren at the Barnes & Noble store at Shea Boulevard and Loop 101 in Scottsdale.

Amin is director of the Parasitology Center Inc. in Scottsdale and an expert in infectious disease.

Mark Bottini, Barnes & Noble vice president and director of stores, issued this statement:

"We want to apologize to Dr. Amin for a situation in which Dr. Amin was asked to leave the children's section of our Scottsdale, Arizona store. We should not have done so. It is not our policy to ask customers to leave any section of our stores without justification."

The statement added, "We value Dr. Amin as a customer and look forward to welcoming him in any of our stores."

The statement was released on Monday after an article appeared in The Arizona Republic and on azcentral.com about the incident involving Amin and store employee Todd Voris.

The company previously declined to comment when contacted by The Republic.

Amin said Voris made him leave the children's area after a complaint from another customer.

Last week, Barnes & Noble issued a statement that it had "acted appropriately" in removing Amin from the children's section.

Amin said Monday that he accepts the apology from Bottini but still wants a face-to-face apology in the store from Voris and a copy of a reprimand letter to the employee.

Barnes & Noble had no other comment about the incident.