A man intentionally coughed on a woman at a laundromat in Texas while claiming to be infected with the coronavirus, police said.
Jeffrey Smith, 46, was snoozing at a Fort Worth laundromat Monday when a woman confronted him and asked him to leave, police said Tuesday.
Smith then “became irate” and coughed in the woman’s face while claiming that he had COVID-19. He also spat in the woman’s face and tried to cough on others at the laundromat before running off, police said.
Cops later took Smith into custody nearby and transported him to a hospital as a precaution. He’s now facing a misdemeanor charge of making a terroristic threat, police said.
“The seriousness of the current COVID-19 crisis cannot be understated and any threat of using the virus, whether infected or not, will be vigorously investigated and appropriate law enforcement action will be taken,” Fort Worth police said in a statement.
Smith, of Fort Worth, remained in custody Wednesday at the Tarrant County Correction Center in lieu of $1,500 bond, records show. It’s unclear if he’s hired an attorney.
Reached for comment early Wednesday, a Fort Worth police spokesman declined to indicate whether Smith had been tested for the coronavirus, saying the department could not share any medical information.
