Man, 59, claims to have COVID-19, coughs in officers' faces, cools heels in cells
Wetaskiwin man charged with assault, failing to comply with Public Health Act
Yet another person has been charged for coughing into a public official's face after claiming to have COVID-19.
Police were called Sunday to a complaint about a man causing a disturbance by yelling and swearing at a home in Wetaskiwin near 48th Street and 48th Avenue, RCMP said in a news release Tuesday.
Officers went to arrest the man who for breaching release conditions on a previous charge.
The man claimed to have COVID-19 and coughed into an officer's face. He did it a second time while being escorted to the police car, then again to another officer while being processed at the detachment.
The 59-year-old man faces six charges including two counts of assaulting a police officer and failure to comply with the Public Health Act.
He was remanded in custody.
"The threat to transmit the COVID-19 virus is a threat to the wellbeing and health of our members which is a criminal offence," Assistant Commissioner John Ferguson, Alberta RCMP's officer-in-charge of criminal operations, said in a news release Tuesday.
"To actually carry out these threats would be an assault on a peace officer."
In Edmonton on Sunday, a 38-year-old man was arrested for attempting to infect transit workers with COVID-19 by coughing on them.
City police said they received a report around 12:30 p.m. Sunday about an assault taking place on an Edmonton Transit Service bus parked near Southgate Centre.
On April 2, Lethbridge police were arresting a 27-year-old man during a domestic call when he said he'd been exposed to COVID-19 and coughed into an officer's face, a news release said.