Cops: Woman Coughed in Baby's Face After Arguing With Mom

Suspect was 'upset about social distancing'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 23, 2020 3:29 PM CDT
Cops: Woman Upset About Social Distancing Coughed in Baby's Face
Police released these images of the suspect.   (San Jose Police Department)

Police in San Jose are searching for a woman accused of deliberately coughing in a baby's face after arguing with the 1-year-old's mother about social distancing. Police spokesman Enrique Garcia says the suspect, a white woman in her 60s, removed her face mask, got close to the baby's face, and coughed two or three times before leaving the Yogurtland store on June 12, the San Jose Mercury News reports. "The preliminary investigation revealed the suspect was upset the female was not maintaining proper social distancing," Garcia says, per ABC.

The incident is being investigated by the San Jose Police Department's assaults unit. "It happened so quick I was in shock. She got close, she took off her mask, and she coughed three times super hard on my son's face," the mother tells KGO. "I believe this woman may be racist because the family in front of her is white," she says. "Me and my grandma are Hispanic and she started telling me about my distance and harassing me and my son once I started speaking Spanish to my grandma." She says her son, who was in a stroller during the incident, had a slight fever afterward but he is now doing OK—and she hopes he hasn't been infected with the coronavirus. (More California stories.)

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