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A man was caught on camera wiping his nose on a Dollar Tree store employee after being told he has to wear a face mask.
A Roseville woman is accused of assaulting an employee at a Nino Salvaggio market in Saint Clair Shores after being asked to leave for not wearing a face mask. When police arrived, she resisted arrest and spit at them.
This incident is one of several in Michigan in which store employees have been attacked — and in one case, killed — for enforcing face mask policies.
A 2017 Roseville mayoral candidate, Kristin Hoff, 33, entered the store on April 26 and was asked to leave because she wasn't wearing a face mask. After she allegedly assaulted a store employee, police were called. Hoff continued to “behave erratically” and resisted arrest, attacking the officers and even spitting at them, at which point she was arrested.
The incident came just two days after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer extended Michigan's coronavirus stay-at-home order and issued the requirement that all individuals wear a mask when in an enclosed space, like grocery stores and pharmacies. Whitmer also said that those establishments reserve the right to refuse service to anyone not wearing a mask.
On April 25, Nino Salvaggio posted to its Facebook page that it would be enforcing the state requirement and that “all customers must be wearing a face covering of some sort, to include nose and mouth.”
Hoff faces a single felony charge for assault and resisting arrest, as well as two misdemeanor charges, including assault and battery, and refusal to be fingerprinted. She is not currently in custody and is awaiting a probable cause conference on Friday.
Last weekend, a Holly man was asked to leave an Oakland County Dollar Tree for not wearing a face mask. Surveillance video shows that he wiped his nose on the clerk's sleeve. The man, Rex Gomoll, was charged with assault and battery this week.
In Flint, Family Dollar security guard Calvin Munerlyn asked a woman, Sharmel Teague, to leave after her daughter entered the store not wearing a mask. The daughter left the store but Teague proceeded to argue with Munerlyn. Teague returned to the store later that day with her husband and son to confront Munerlyn, who was shot in the head by Teague's 23-year-old son. Teague was arraigned this week on first-degree murder and felony firearm charges. Police are still searching for the other suspects.
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