Georgia Grocery Cashier Shot & Killed Over Mask Argument
Another mask dispute ended in tragedy after an irate customer shot and killed a Georgia grocery store cashier
In yet another horrifying instance of an anti-masker’s tirade ending in tragedy, a Georgia grocery cashier was shot dead yesterday after an argument with a customer over a face mask.
After the shooting at a Big Bear supermarket near Atlanta, GA, Victor Lee Tucker Jr. of Palmetto, GA, was arrested by DeKalb County Police “as he was attempting to crawl out the front door of the supermarket,” according to a statement from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Tucker killed cashier Laquitta Willis, 41, after they got into an argument over his face mask. Tucker left the store without purchasing his items and returned with his firearm.
“Tucker walked directly back to the cashier, pulled out a handgun and shot her,” the bureau’s statement reads. During the attack, Tucker also began shooting at a deputy sheriff “who was attempting to intervene while working off-duty at the supermarket,” the bureau said.
Tucker was shot by the deputy as well, and both are expected to survive their injuries. Sheriff Melody M. Maddox of DeKalb County said during a news conference that the deputy was wearing a bulletproof vest at the time which likely saved his life. A second grocery cashier was grazed by a bullet and treated at the scene.
This is a story that’s been all too common over the last 15 months — essential workers at grocery, retail stores, and restaurants becoming the targets of frustration for anti-maskers who think their freedoms are worth more than people’s lives. The examples of this appalling behavior are, sadly, endless. Just this week, news broke that a man who spit on a customer at an eyewear store during a mask dispute has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. Incidents of unruly passengers on flights have skyrocketed over the last year with mask arguments cited as one of the reasons. A Family Dollar security guard was killed last year over a mask argument.
And this is exactly why no one should be expecting cashiers or managers of stores to confront customers who make a fuss about a mask. We’ve seen over and over again that some of these horrible folks are fine with getting violent — even deadly — when it comes to their insistence that masks aren’t needed. It’s heartbreaking that another life has ended prematurely over something that should be so simple — in places where it’s still required, just wear the damn mask.
