Ralphs has suspended an employee who pepper-sprayed a customer after he rammed her with a cart when she asked him to wear a mask.
Cell-phone video from the incident, which occurred July 15 at a Ralphs store in Los Angeles' Mid-Wilshire District, went viral last week. The video showed the customer on the floor of an aisle near spilled milk, with EMTs attending to him. The employee called police after pepper-spraying the man.
CBSLA reports: Witnesses to the altercation said the employee was defending herself, but she was still suspended for her part in the incident. “The associate was suspended for five days for not following company guidelines on responding to customers not wearing a face covering and not following de-escalation procedures, which could have prevented the incident,” a company spokesman said. Face coverings are required in the state of California when social distancing cannot be observed. Ralphs also announced this week that customers would be required to wear masks in all their stores, effective immediately.
Watch the station's report below.
