Two arrested after coughing on Walmart employees, refusing to wear masks, AZ cops say
Two people have been arrested in Yuma, Arizona after police said they refused to wear masks and coughed on Walmart employees.
On July 8, the Yuma Police Department responded to a report of a man and woman who were coughing on Walmart workers and not wearing masks, according to a statement by the department. Walmart trespassed the two people, meaning they wanted them to leave, according to the statement.
Businesses can trespass people and sometimes will ask police to issue a trespass warning, according to the Scottsbluff Star Herald.
Frank Montoya, 38, was “confrontational” after police tried to stop him and Victoria Parra Carranza, 23, according to the statement. Police said Montoya tried to flee and fought with police, who were trying to detain him. Parra Carranza also tried to interfere with the officers, police said.
Both were booked into the Yuma County Adult Detention Facility, according to inmate records. Montoya was charged with resisting arrest, aggravated assault of an officer, disorderly conduct for fighting, and criminal trespass. Parra Carranza was charged with criminal trespass, hindering prosecution, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct for fighting, and aggravated assault against an officer.
The Department of Justice said in a March letter that COVID-19 “appears to meet” the “statutory definition of a ‘biological agent’” and that people who try to infect people on purpose could face terrorism charges.
“Threats or attempts to use COVID-19 as a weapon against Americans will not be tolerated,” he wrote.“[Y]ou may encounter criminal activity ranging from malicious hoaxes, to threats targeting specific individuals or the general public, to the purposeful exposure and infection of others with COVID-19,” Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen wrote in a statement. “Because coronavirus appears to meet the statutory definition of a ‘biological agent’ under [federal law], such acts potentially could implicate the Nation’s terrorism-related statutes.”
Other people have been accused of intentionally coughing on others.
A school worker lost her job after video showed her coughing on a baby in a yogurt shop. Security camera footage at a Yogurtland in San Jose, California shows a woman pulling down her face mask and coughing into a baby’s face. The baby boy, who was in a stroller, and his mother were in line behind the suspect.
The incident occurred on June 12 and an investigation found that the suspect was “upset the female was not maintaining proper social distancing, so the suspect removed her face mask, got close to the baby’s face, and coughed 2-3 times,” according to a San Jose Police Department in a news release.
More than 3 million people have been infected with COVID-19 in the U.S. as of July 9, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 132,000 people have died from the virus in the U.S.
