Customer fatally shoots cashier in argument over mask at Georgia supermarket

A customer who argued about wearing a face mask at a Georgia supermarket shot and killed a cashier Monday and wounded a deputy sheriff working off duty at the store, law enforcement officials said.

The gunman was shot by the deputy, and both are expected to survive their injuries, according to law enforcement officials.

A suspect, identified as Victor Lee Tucker, 30, of Palmetto, Georgia, was arrested by DeKalb County Police Department officers “as he was attempting to crawl out the front door of the supermarket,” according to a statement from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

The gunfire occurred inside a Big Bear supermarket in Decatur, Georgia, about 10 miles east of downtown Atlanta, just after 1 p.m., officials said. That is when Tucker was checking out of the supermarket and got into an argument with a cashier about his face mask, the bureau said in its statement. Tucker left the store without purchasing his items but immediately returned.

“Tucker walked directly back to the cashier, pulled out a handgun and shot her,” the bureau said. He then began shooting at the deputy, “who was attempting to intervene while working off-duty at the supermarket,” the bureau said.

The cashier, whose name was not released, was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta and pronounced dead, officials said. Tucker was taken there, too, and was in stable condition.

The deputy, whose name was not released, was taken to the Atlanta Medical Center and listed in stable condition, officials said.

The deputy was wearing a bulletproof vest and it likely saved his life, Sheriff Melody M. Maddox of DeKalb County said at a news conference.

A second cashier was “grazed by a bullet” and treated at the scene for her injury, according to the bureau.

The shooting came more than a year into the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed nearly 600,000 people in the United States and prompted health restrictions that crippled many businesses. For some, the public health rules prompted cries that personal freedoms were being violated.

Enforcing the wearing of masks in public places became, at times, dangerous.

An Iowa man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for assaulting and spitting on another man last year in a fight over how he was wearing his mask. An 80-year-old man died after he was pushed to the ground at a bar near Buffalo by a fellow customer whom he had asked to put on a mask.

And last June in Los Angeles, Hugo’s Tacos temporarily closed its two locations in the city because, it said, its staff was “exhausted by the constant conflicts over guests refusing to wear masks.”

Enforcing mask policies had become a new American pastime.

That began to change as more people were vaccinated and warmer weather allowed for safer gatherings outdoors, where transmissions were less likely to occur.

Soon, restrictions began to fade. In New York state, for example, officials have announced plans to roll back restrictions and New York City will hold a parade for essential workers.

But not every part of the country was succeeding against the virus at the same pace. Just last month, the city of Decatur extended until at least June 21 its requirement for people to wear a face covering when entering any building in the city, except religious establishments, Decaturish.com reported.