Shoppers Told to Wear Masks Fight With Guards

Target employee's arm is broken in melee
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted May 11, 2020 5:30 PM CDT
Shoppers Told to Wear Masks Fight With Guards
Keeping social distancing and wearing protective masks and gloves, shoppers wait to enter a Target store in the Van Nuys section of Los Angeles last month.   (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

Two brothers who were told to leave a Target in California because they weren't wearing face masks started a fight with security guards instead. The men were being escorted out of the Van Nuys store by the employees on May 1 when the struggle began, the Los Angeles Times reports. "As they approached the exit, one of the suspects suddenly and without provocation turned and punched the store employee, causing him and the suspect to fall to the floor," a police spokesman says. The other suspect joined in, as two other employees tried to subdue the brothers. One employee was treated at a hospital for a broken arm.

The brothers, 31 and 29, fled the store but were arrested later that day on felony battery charges, per KCBS, and bail was set at $50,000 for each of them. The men are homeless, police said. Los Angeles and Los Angeles County put rules in effect last month requiring shoppers to wear masks when in a store. Police said the Target brawl was the fourth fight in Van Nuys over the mask requirement since it took effect, per KABC. Surveillance video of the fight can be seen here. (A security guard at a store in Detroit was killed after enforcing the mask rule.)

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