Dispute over use of masks results in one dead, three injured at supermarket in United States

Atlanta-area supermarket cashier died and three others were injured on Mondays in a shootout that arose out of a discussion about wearing a mask inside the store.

DeKalb County Sheriff Melody Maddox said the shooting occurred inside the Big Bear supermarket in Decatur as several people were inside the business. In the middle of the incident, a cashier was killed when a man opened fire.

“There was a confrontation, a discussion – I don’t know exactly what – with reference to the use of masks, when the subject drew a gun and shot the cashier”Maddox said at a press conference.

The customer has been identified as Victor Lee Tucker, Jr., 30, from Palmetto, GA, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The agency said preliminary information indicates Tucker argued with the cashier and left the store without making his purchase, but immediately returned to the supermarket.

“Tucker went straight back to the cashier, pulled out a gun and shot her. “the Georgia Bureau of Investigation wrote in the press release.

According to local media, the deceased woman had worked in the store for two years and was in her 40s.

A reserve officer, who worked part-time for store security, exchanged gunfire with the suspect and the two were injured, the sheriff said. Officers from the DeKalb County Police Department arrested Tucker as he attempted to exit through the front door of the supermarket.

Maddox said the officer was shot twice but was wearing a bulletproof vest and was taken to a medical center where he was in stable condition. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Tucker is also in stable condition.

The agency said a second cashier was hit by a bullet and was treated for her injury at the scene.

The injured officer who opened fire on the shooter is retired and is a member of a reserve unit made up of certified police officers who are not actively working for a law enforcement agency. These officers can work with the sheriff’s office on a voluntary basis and can take on part-time security jobs, the sheriff’s department explained.

Maddox said the officer’s response could have prevented other people from being injured.

“For him to be trained, it is the result of his more than 30 years of experience”, Maddox said.

The shooting came more than a year after the outbreak of a pandemic that claimed nearly 600,000 lives in the United States and which resulted in restrictive drugs such as reduced mobility and the use of masks. become public health standards that for much of the American population constitute violations of their personal freedoms.

In the past, there have been cases of violence linked to the obligation for certain premises to comply with these measures. For example, last year an Iowa man spat on another in the middle of a fight over the proper use of a mask, an action that ended a 10-year prison sentence for the aggressor. In another case, an 80-year-old man died after a bar patron pushed him to the ground, a violent reaction to the old man’s request to wear a mask.

In this context, the application of biosafety standards in the United States has become a work of life and death.

* With AP information

KEEP READING