In the fatal 2020 shooting of a security guard at a Family Dollar store in Flint, Mi., over a dispute regarding mask requirements, three family members were sentenced to life in prison without parole. According to prosecutors, the confrontation unfolded on May 1, 2020, after the guard, Calvin Munerlyn, 43, told customer Sharmel Teague that her daughter needed to wear a mask inside the store, reports the New York Times. Teague yelled and spat at the guard, prompting him to tell her to leave and instructing a cashier not to serve her, according to the Genessee County prosecutor. Teague left the store and called her husband, Larry. He arrived at the store with his stepson, Ramonyea Bishop, who shot Munerlyn in the back of the head, according to prosecutors. Munerlyn was transported to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The Teagues, both 47, and Ms. Teague’s son, Bishop, 26, were convicted of first-degree murder in November.. A sister of Bishop, Brya Bishop, 27, was sentenced in November to a year of probation for tampering with evidence, lying to police, and being an accessory after the fact to a felony. The sentencing concluded a case that began more than two years ago in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic — a period when scarce information about the virus and its spread led to rampant fear and anger among the public. Often, that anger was misdirected at shop clerks, managers, and hospitality workers, who were suddenly tasked with enforcing ever-shifting preventive rules around mask-wearing in particular, which sometimes lead to violent disputes.