SEYMOUR — A 28-year-old Seymour resident was charged with disorderly conduct and criminal trespass after allegedly confronting a customer inside Stop & Shop for wearing a mask.
The man, Leon Lewandowski, is due in court Sept. 15.
According to a prepared statement from Seymour Police Department Deputy Chief Roberto N. Rinaldi, police received numerous 911 calls Friday at 3:35 p.m. about a “physical fight” happening inside the Stop & Shop on Franklin St.
Police were told that Lewandowski, who was allegedly not wearing a face covering, “was taunting another customer” for wearing a face covering.
“When Lewandowski became aggressive toward the customer, the customer tried to defend himself and it turned physical,” according to police. “During the incident and before it turned physical, management had asked Lewandowski to leave and he refused to leave.”
The customer was not injured. The Stop & Shop incident was reported about seven minutes before Seymour police, fire and EMS were sent to Roosevelt Drive, where a car went into the Housatonic River.
The world is currently in the midst of a global pandemic.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory illness that can spread from person to person, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
COVID-19 is a new disease, caused by a novel (or new) coronavirus that has not previously been seen in humans.
As of Sunday, Aug. 2, there were 17.8 million confirmed cases on the planet. About 685,000 people have died. About 10.5 million have recovered. The stats come from the COVID-19 online dashboard created by Johns Hopkins University.
As COVID spread across the U.S., masks have been found to be an effective way to slow transmission rates.
“To reduce the spread of COVID-19, CDC recommends that people wear masks in public settings when around people outside of their household, especially when other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain.”
In Connecticut, Gov. Ned Lamont issued executive order no. 7BB in April mandating that “any person in a public place in Connecticut who is unable to or does not maintain a safe social distance of approximately six feet from every other person shall cover their mouth and nose with a mask or cloth face-covering.
Click here for the full order.
However, some view COVID-19 as a partisan political issue, and conspiracy theories involving the virus are commonplace, including on local social media pages.
