A sheriff’s agent shot and killed a Michigan man on Tuesday after stabbing another man who challenged him for not wearing a mask at a convenience store, police said.
It was far from the first reported violent incident regarding the use, or not, of masks as a basic measure to protect against the spread of the coronavirus.
For some, perhaps encouraged by Donald Trump’s reluctance to wear a mask in public, the decision to do so has become a political statement.
Tuesday’s shooting occurred in Eaton County, southwest of Lansing, about 30 minutes after the stabbing at a Quality Dairy store, state police Lt. Brian Oleksyk said, adding that a sheriff’s officer saw the man’s vehicle. in a residential neighborhood and shot him. when he tried to attack her with a knife.
Sean Ruis, 43, of Grand Ledge, died in a hospital. He stabbed a 77-year-old man inside Quality Dairy when faced with not wearing a mask, Oleksyk said. The stabbed victim was in stable condition in a hospital.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has ordered people to wear masks in stores to reduce the risk of coronavirus.
Tensions have been high in Michigan. In May, a security guard at a Family Dollar store in Flint was shot dead after denying entry to a customer without a mask.
Elsewhere, the Kansas City Star newspaper reported Monday that a barbecue restaurant worker was threatened by “a middle-aged man wearing a red Make America Great Again hat, and no mask.”
Arlo Kinsey, 18, told the newspaper he was working behind a take-out counter in Mission, Missouri, when he asked the customer, “If I could wear a mask, since that’s what Governor Kelly told us to do? we would do. “
Laura Kelly, like Whitmer, a Democrat, ordered the use of masks in public earlier this month. Republicans have opposed order.
Kinsey told Star that the customer “said he had an exemption for the mask order. [and] He raised his shirt, revealing a gun in a holster on his hip. “
Bob Palmgren, the owner of RJ’s Bob-Be-Que cabin, told the newspaper that Kinsey said, “This guy doesn’t put on a mask and has a gun, and I say, ‘Shit.’ I run over there and I wonder, ‘What’s going on? And he shows me his Trump hat. And I like Trump.
“Everyone has problems. But it doesn’t make a difference. You don’t have a mask on. And I say: your weapon will not kill the coronavirus, now get out of here.
An argument ensued before the man left, Palmgren said, adding that he felt threatened.
“Especially these days, it’s scary when people have any type of weapon, even if it’s a fake gun,” said the former US Marine. “You don’t know what he’s going to do. I have a lot of guys that I know come here and are hiding carrying. But they are not showing their gun to anyone. “
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