Arizona duo intentionally cough on Walmart employees after refusing to wear masks, assault responding officers
Law enforcement in Yuma, Arizona, arrested two people after they reportedly coughed on Walmart employees while refusing to wear masks at the store. According to a Yuma Police Department statement, authorities responded to a report of a man and woman who were deliberately coughing on Walmart workers and not wearing masks on Wednesday, July 8. Walmart "trespassed" the two people as they wanted them to leave the store, the statement noted. As reported by the Scottsbluff Star Herald, businesses are entitled to trespass people and can ask the police to issue a trespass warning.
According to the police statement, Frank Montoya, 38, was "confrontational" after officers tried to stop him and Victoria Parra Carranza, 23. Authorities said Montoya attempted to flee during the confrontation and that Parra Carranza also tried to interfere with the officers as they tried to detain Montoya. Both were booked into the Yuma County Adult Detention Facility on various charges. Montoya was slapped with resisting arrest, aggravated assault of an officer, disorderly conduct for fighting and criminal trespass, while Parra Carranza with criminal trespass, hindering prosecution, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct for fighting as well as aggravated assault against an officer.
In a March letter, the Department of Justice said Covid-19 appeared to meet the “statutory definition of a ‘biological agent” and those who tried to intentionally spread the virus could possibly face terrorism charges. “Threats or attempts to use Covid-19 as a weapon against Americans will not be tolerated," Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen wrote in a statement. “[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,” he continued. “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.”
This is not the first time people have been accused of intentionally coughing on others during the pandemic. Last month, a school worker allegedly deliberately coughed on a baby boy twice while standing in line at a store. The woman was seen in a video shared by California police removing her mask at a frozen yogurt shop before coughing on a one-year-old baby. His mother is seen in the footage pushing a stroller and waiting on line behind the suspect in the June 12 incident. The woman is seen pulling her mask down as she nears the stroller and proceeding to cough two or three times on the child. The mother is then seen pulling a cover on the stroller in a bid to protect her baby boy. The woman who coughed on the baby is captured in another frame walking out of the store. Speaking to ABC 7, the baby's mother Mireya Mora claimed the woman "did it on purpose". "Coughing on someone's face. She did it on purpose it's not like she did it on accident, oh cough, cough — no she purposely coughed on my son's face," she said. An investigation into the incident 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,” San Jose Police Department said in a news release.
As of July 10, more than 3 million people have contracted Covid-19 in the U.S. Meanwhile, more than 132,000 people have died from the deadly virus, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.