‘I believe in white power’: Woman arrested after allegedly attacking Home Depot shopper in mask dispute

Woman caught on video attacking Home Depot customer after mask dispute

An Illinois woman was caught on video allegedly assaulting another Home Depot customer after a dispute over face coverings. (This video was edited from its original form to remove expletives and obscene gestures.)

A woman was arrested after allegedly assaulting another shopper at Home Depot in Illinois over a mask argument.

Video posted to Facebook by Sydney Waters on July 3 showed a woman identified by McHenry police as 54-year-old Teri Hill, who was also recording Waters, with her mask in her pocket after she had taken it off to tell an employee to enforce the mask mandate on other customers as well, according to a news release from McHenry police.

Waters said she let Hill know that if she was going to demand other customers wear their masks, then it was important for her to wear one as well, according to a Facebook post published by Waters detailing the interaction.

“Then she took her mask all the way off, put it in her pocket and let me know she was going to spit and cough on me,” Waters wrote on Facebook.

Hill can be seen in the video holding her own phone up, as well as her middle finger, toward Waters and saying, “Yes I am entitled. I’m white and I’m a woman.”Waters asks, “What does you being white have to do with you getting your way?”Hill responds, “Because I’m a white woman and that’s what happens. I believe in white power.”

Waters then attempts to lift her phone higher in order to get a glimpse of Hill’s face, after which Hill allegedly hit her and took off Waters’ mask when the pair fell to the ground in a struggle.

Hill was arrested and charged with battery and disorderly conduct, according to police.

The incident is one of many in recent days that have been caught on camera of people flouting mask mandates that have been implemented in order to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

A Costco customer confronted another shopper in Florida earlier this week for apparently not wearing a facial covering. The conflict escalated when the man who was confronted began screaming, "I feel threatened,” at the customer who confronted him.Film director Billy Corben reposted the video to his Twitter account on July 7.

Not long after, Ted Todd Insurance tweeted that the man in the video was an employee of their company, stating that the man had been terminated.

“Thank you to everyone for their comments and messages raising awareness about a former employee at Ted Todd Insurance,” the company said in a statement posted to their Twitter account. “Their behavior in the video is in direct conflict with our company values and their employment has been terminated.”

Another video of a woman coughing on another customer inside of a New York bagel store went viral after the two women got into an argument over wearing a face mask in public in early June.

The woman “was coughing, not covering her mouth, and not wearing a mask,” according to Ally Goodbaum’s Facebook post.

The woman, identified as Lauren Balsamo by her former employer, apparently overheard the conversation between Goodbaum and an employee about Balsamo not wearing a mask and “became enraged.”

Balsamo then started yelling at Goodbaum and claimed she had COVID-19 antibodies and was not required to wear a mask in public. She continued to yell obscenities at Goodbaum and told her to “say it to her face” before moving toward Goodbaum and coughing loudly on her.

As COVID-19 cases dramatically spike across the U.S., health officials strongly advise people to continue to social distance and wear a cloth face covering in public.

Wearing a cloth face covering can help prevent sickening those at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19 and workers who frequently come into close contact with other people, according to the CDC guidelines on face coverings.

The World Health Organization on Tuesday acknowledged “emerging evidence” that the novel coronavirus can spread through the air through aerosolized particles from talking or breathing. The acknowledgement comes a day after more than 230 scientists outlined evidence on the subject in an open letter to the organization.

In the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, two scientists from Australia and the U.S. wrote that studies have shown “beyond any reasonable doubt that viruses are released during exhalation, talking and coughing in microdroplets small enough to remain aloft in the air.”

That means people in certain indoor conditions could be at greater risk of being infected than was previously thought.

Kelly Taylor Hayes and Storyful contributed to this report.