2 Target customers who refused to wear face masks were arrested after a brawl that broke an employee's arm
- Two men refused to wear masks during their trip to a Los Angeles Target store, according to the LAPD.
- Phillip and Paul Hamilton were being escorted out of the store when one of the men punched an employee before a fight broke out among the group, according to a department statement published alongside a video of the incident.
- While on the ground, a store employee broke his left arm, the LAPD said.
- The incident comes as the latest clash between retail employees and customers refusing to abide by face-mask policies.
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Two men who refused to wear masks in a Los Angeles Target store were arrested for felony assault after one of them punched an employee, causing him to break his arm, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement.
The men, Phillip Hamilton, 31, and Paul Hamilton, 29, visited a Van Nuys Target on May 1 with no masks on in violation of the store's mask order, police said.
A video posted by the department shows that when the Hamiltons were being escorted out of the store, one of them turned around "suddenly without provocation" and punched an employee, causing them both to call on the floor, according to the statement, before a fight broke out between the three employees and the men.
While on the floor, the employee broke his left arm, the police statement said.
Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics transported the store employee to a local hospital where was treated for his injuries, according to the statement. The Hamiltons were arrested and charged with felony battery, according to police, and are being held on $50,000 bail.
This isn't the first incident to break out in a retail store over mask policies.
Insider previously reported that a Family Dollar security guard was fatally shot and died on May 1 after getting into a fight with a woman over Michigan's face-mask policy, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said that Calvin Munerlyn stopped a mother and daughter from trying to enter the store because the daughter wasn't wearing a mask. After 45-year-old Sharmel Lasse Teague yelled at Munerlyn and left, she returned with two men, one of whom shot the security guard in the back of the head, according to prosecutors.
Even as most US states have announced initial reopening policies for some businesses that will be gradually expanded, anti-lockdown protests have popped up across the country from armed demonstrations in North Carolina to squats and push-ups for an open gym in Florida.
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