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Two Men Arrested For Attacking Trader Joe's Employees Who Asked Them To Wear Masks
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jul 29, 2020
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Ben Yakas
Published Jul 29, 2020
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Two men have been arrested and charged after allegedly attacking multiple employees at the Trader Joe's location in Murray Hill this month because employees asked them to wear masks.
An NYPD spokesperson says the incident happened around 8:50 p.m. on July 14th at the Trader Joe's located on 32nd Street near 3rd Avenue. Multiple employees asked the two men, who have been identified as 34-year-olds John Carrero and Alejandro Escobar, to leave the premises because they weren't wearing any facial coverings, which is store policy.
The men refused, and instead allegedly turned hostile: cops say they pulled a mask off the face of a 49-year-old male employee, and Carrero hit a 28-year-old female employee in the head with a wooden paddle. One of them pulled the hair of a 57-year-old female employee, and threw objects (including baskets) at other employees. Escobar allegedly threatened, ”Don't make me get my gun,” which cops said caused "fear and alarm to employees and customers inside of the store." The men finally left the store, at which point they grabbed a chair to attempt to break a store window.
Both men were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, harassment and criminal trespassing. In addition, Carrero was charged with second-degree assault and criminal possession of a weapon, and Escobar was charged with menacing. The woman hit with the paddle was taken to a local hospital to be treated for her injuries.
Kenya Friend-Daniel, a spokesperson for Trader Joe's, told Gothamist that they were cooperating with police on the active investigation, saying, "I can tell you it was a very frightening and unfortunate incident and we are grateful that our Crew Members are okay."
She said that at least seven or eight Crew Members were involved in the incident, and they are all back at work now. "Following the incident, Crew Members were offered additional paid leave, as well as the chance to temporarily transfer to a different store in the area, if they needed some time away from the store, or just some time to process the incident," she said. The company has also hired a security guard for that location.
"Our top priority will always be the safety and wellbeing of our Crew Members and customers, and we’ll do whatever is necessary to help keep them safe," she added.
An employee at the store who witnessed what happened told Vice that at least 10 employees, including three managers, were attacked during the incident. They also claimed that Trader Joe's had been withholding information about the incident because they "didn’t want people to be afraid to come back into the store."
Last month, a man who refused to wear a mask and called the virus a hoax "protested" outside Burly Coffee/Better Read Than Dead in Bed-Stuy before being chased off by onlookers. And a woman was captured on video coughing on an Astoria coffee shop customer who called her out for not wearing a face covering.
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COVID-19
masks
coronavirus
trader joe's
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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