Shopper slaps grocery worker for asking her to wear face mask, Colorado video shows

A Colorado grocery store worker who implored a shopper to wear a face mask got a slap in the face in reply, security video shows.

Now Parker police are seeking the woman on possible assault charges following the incident at a King Soopers market at 17761 Cottonwood Drive at 6 p.m. Feb 3, police wrote on Facebook.

The worker had repeatedly asked the woman, a regular customer, to wear a face mask, KDVR reported. The woman claimed a medical exemption and the worker offered her other options to receive her groceries.

Store security video shows the woman pushing a grocery cart down an aisle, followed by the employee. The woman turns and walks past the employee, slapping him.

The woman ran out of the supermarket and has not returned, KCNC reported.

“Grocery workers are Essential Heroes and have been on the frontlines during this entire pandemic at great personal risk,” Kim Cordova, president of the local United Food and Commercial Workers Union, told KDVR. “They deserve to work in safe environments but unfortunately that hasn’t been the case.”

“No need to assault an employee,” read one comment on the police Facebook post, although some posters defended the woman and accused stores of going too far by requiring masks.

More than 107 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide with more than 2.3 million deaths as of Feb. 11, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has more than 27 million confirmed cases with more than 471,000 deaths.

This story was originally published February 11, 2021 at 7:55 AM with the headline "Shopper slaps grocery worker for asking her to wear face mask, Colorado video shows."