A Michigan man was shot dead by a sheriff’s deputy on Tuesday after stabbing another man who challenged him about not wearing a mask at a convenience store, police said.
It was far from the first reported violent incident over the wearing – or not – of masks as a basic measure to guard against the spread of the coronavirus.
For some, perhaps encouraged by Donald Trump’s long reluctance to wear a mask in public, the decision about whether to do so has become a political statement.
Tuesday’s shooting occurred in Eaton county, south-west of Lansing, about 30 minutes after the stabbing at a Quality Dairy store, Lt Brian Oleksyk of the state police said, adding that a sheriff’s deputy spotted the man’s vehicle in a residential neighborhood and shot him when he tried to attack her with a knife.
Sean Ruis, 43 and from Grand Ledge, died at a hospital. He stabbed a 77-year-old man inside the Quality Dairy when he was confronted about not wearing a mask, Oleksyk said. The stabbing victim was in stable condition at a hospital.
The Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, has ordered people to wear masks in stores to reduce the risk of the coronavirus.
Tensions have been high in Michigan. In May, a security guard at a Family Dollar store in Flint was fatally shot after denying entry to a customer without a mask.
Elsewhere, the Kansas City Star newspaper reported on Monday that a worker at a barbecue restaurant was threatened by “a middle-aged man dressed in a red Make America Great Again hat – and no mask”.
Arlo Kinsey, 18, told the paper he was working behind a takeout counter in Mission, Missouri, when he asked the customer “if he could wear a mask, since it’s what Governor Kelly told us to do”.
Laura Kelly, like Whitmer a Democrat, mandated the wearing of masks in public earlier this month. Republicans have opposed the order.
Kinsey told the Star the customer “said he had an exemption to the mask order [and] lifted up his shirt, revealing a gun in a holster on his hip”.
Bob Palmgren, the owner of RJ’s Bob-Be-Que Shack, told the paper Kinsey told him “this guy won’t put a mask on and has a gun, and I’m like, ‘Holy shit.’ I run over there, and I’m like, ‘Hey, what’s going on? And he shows me his Trump hat. And I like Trump.
“Everybody’s got problems. But it doesn’t make a difference. You don’t have a mask on. And I’m like: your gun’s not going to kill coronavirus, now get the hell 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 kind of gun, even if it’s a fake gun,” the former US marine said. “You don’t know what he’s going to do. I have a lot of guys who I know come in here and are concealed carrying. But they aren’t showing their gun to anybody.”
