Authorities in San Jose, California are looking for a 60-year-old woman after that woman allegedly intentionally coughed in a young boy’s face to teach his mother a lesson. According to ABC 7, the woman was dissatisfied with how the mom of the 1-year-old boy was social distancing.
The incident occurred on June 12 at 5:30 p.m. while the mom and her son were in line at a local Yogurtland. The 60-year-old woman was standing in front of the mother, who had her son in a stroller. As ABC 7 reports, the elderly woman thought the mother and son pair was standing too close to her.
While talking with ABC 7, the mom, Mireya Mora, said “it happened so quick, I was in shock. She got close, she took off her mask, and she coughed three times super hard on my son’s face.”
Now San Jose police have shared surveillance footage of the incident and are now asking the public to help them identify her. According to the press release, “footage shows the woman wearing a gray bandana, glasses, and a “long sleeve shirt with gray vertical lines, white dress pants, and patterned tennis shoes.”
Mora believes the attack to racially motivated. “I believe this woman may be racist because the family in front of her is white. Me and my grandma are Hispanic and she started telling me about my distance and harassing me and my son once I started speaking Spanish to my grandma,” Mora told ABC 7.
And the mom firmly believes the woman acted intentionally when she pulled down her mask and coughed in her son’s face.
“Coughing on someone’s face. She did it on purpose it’s not like she did it on accident, oh cough, cough — no she purposely coughed on my son’s face.”
Mora’s son has since been tested for coronavirus and his tests have come back negative. So far, the mom said, her son did have a fever immediately following the incident, but is doing well. Anyone who has information can call Detective Dan Bowman of the San Jose Police Department’s Assaults Unit at 408-277-4161.