The Summit County Sheriff’s Office reported that a woman shopping at Walmart encountered hostility from another customer—and his shopping cart—over the issue of wearing a mask.
The Sheriff’s report said the incident occurred on Saturday, July 18, around 7 p.m.
The complainant, a 47-year-old woman from Taylorsville, told a deputy she entered the Walmart with her two children and a male companion. The woman said she wasn’t wearing a face mask because of a preexisting medical condition.
They separated. The woman encountered a man with a face-covering who told her, very loudly, “Thank you for not wearing a mask.” He continued yelling, and ran his shopping cart into hers several times, so much so that she lost her grip on her cart.
The confrontation aggravated her condition and she reportedly suffered back pain and had to sit down.
The management of the store talked to the suspect and asked him to leave. Sheriff’s Lt. Andrew Wright said a surveillance camera captured the incident, although the video quality is fairly poor.
Lt. Wright said that, since the report of the incident, they’ve had citizens ask them why they don’t enforce the county’s mask mandate. But he said that, in cases where people are maskless for medical reasons, deputies don’t get involved in situations that could invoke the American Disabilities Act.
He said the major stores in the area have set up their own policies requiring masks, and this allows them to take care of the issue themselves.
In another incident, the mask mandate was also brought up in a nasty voicemail left at the Sheriff’s Office.
Lt. Wright said the caller had earlier been arrested by deputies. In late June, he crashed into a parked vehicle in the Bear Hollow neighborhood. He was detained, was uncooperative during field sobriety tests, and was arrested and booked into jail for leaving the scene of an accident.
The 62-year-old suspect, from Port Saint Lucie, Florida, was later released.
The Sheriff’s Office said that on July 6, the man left a voicemail asking what law requires him to wear a mask to get food.
He said the mask causes health issues for him, and added, “You people have terrorized an entire population. I am part of the push-back legally to come after every one of you—you understand.”
He concluded, “Tyrants are not accepted. Have a lousy day.”
The call was documented for informational purposes.
