Two Chicago sisters are currently in police custody after one of them allegedly stabbed a Snipes shoe store security guard 27 times while the other held him back after they got into an argument over their refusal to wear face masks and use hand sanitizer over the weekend.
According to Chicago Sun-Times, 21-year-old Jessica Hill and her sister, Jayla, have been charged with attempted murder and were denied bail by Cook County judge, Mary Marubio, on Tuesday.
Prosecutors said the incident at a Lawndale store reportedly escalated after the victim asked the sisters to leave for refusing to comply with the orders of wearing a face mask and using hand sanitizer. Prior to the stabbing, Jayla, who was initially filming their confrontation, said she was going to call someone to “kick” the guard’s “ass”. After the guard tried taking Jayla’s phone as a result, Jessica allegedly “smashed” his face with a trash can, and both sisters started punching him.
Per surveillance camera footage at the store, Jessica subsequently pulled out a “comb knife” that had a hidden blade and proceeded to stab the guard several times in his neck, arms and back while Jayla immobilized him by grabbing hold of his hair, Chicago Sun-Times reports.
“It’s the complete randomness of this. It’s terrifying,” Judge Marubio said on Tuesday.
The sisters continued attacking the guard despite pleas from him as well as an assistant store manager and then proceeded to kick him in his head and body even after he managed to free himself, reports said. During the attack, Jessica also allegedly called the guard a “b**ch” and told him they had gotten him “f**cked up”.
Despite his injuries, the guard managed to detain the sisters in the store until the police arrived and took them into custody. The victim was also treated for his injuries at a hospital but did not require surgery.
Though the attorney for the sisters argued they acted in self-defense and had been “overcharged” for the incident, Marubio said the number of stab wounds the victim sustained was “of concern” albeit the stabbing may not have been premeditated, Chicago Sun-Times reports.
“This is just too random and quickly escalating. I can’t fashion conditions that would protect the community,” Marubio, who also likened the attack to a domestic violence incident, said. Their next court date is set for November 4.
“I’m kind of wary because we often have to tell customers to wear their masks, and they get irate and don’t want to do it,” a manager at a nearby store who heard about the attack said. “We had a customer the other day that didn’t want to wear a mask and we needed to call the police. It’s crazy.”
In May, Face2Face Africa reported a story of a security guard at a Family Dollar store in Flint, Michigan, who was fatally shot in the head after a confrontation with a woman and two other male accomplices over a face mask.
The incident occurred when the victim, Calvin James Munerlyn, 43, got into an altercation with the woman and her daughter after telling the latter it was required of her to wear a face mask while in the store.
The confrontation ended with the woman being ejected from the store after she spat on Munerlyn. After leaving the premises, the woman later returned with two men who were identified as her husband, Larry Edward Teague Jr., 43, and her son, Ramonyea Travon Bishop, 23. The male suspects then went ahead to confront Munerlyn for disrespecting the woman and during their exchange, Bishop pulled out a gun and shot Munerlyn in the head.
All suspects involved in the case – including the woman – were apprehended.
