Man Allegedly Attacks 'Murderers' at Vaccine Clinic

The COVID situation turned ugly in California's Orange County last week, with a man arrested and accused of attacking workers at a vaccine clinic. Staffers at the Families Together mobile clinic in Tustin say the man began calling them "murderers" and perpetrators of a COVID hoax from the parking lot, reports the Orange County Register. "He said, 'I don't need a mask, I don't have the virus, and you are the ones making people sick,'" says the clinic's Parsia Jahanbani. "And just every type of profanity you can imagine." When Jahanbani and a colleague approached the man, he lunged at them and began punching, says Jahanbani. A security guard and two patients helped subdue the man and hold him until police arrived.

"We're proud of the strength and bravery of our team, and while this incident has shaken us, we will not be deterred from our mission to keep our community safe and healthy," said the clinic in a statement. Police arrested 43-year-old Thomas Apollo on suspicion of battery and resisting arrest and booked him into the Orange County Jail, and the case has been referred to the county district attorney for review, per NBC News. The clinic staffer who took the brunt of the blows was treated at the hospital and returned to work looking like "a boxer after a fight," a clinic executive tells the Los Angeles Times. (More coronavirus vaccine stories.)