A security guard at a Target in Los Angeles was attacked by two men who refused to wear face masks inside the store, police said.
The fight broke out on May 1 around 10:20 a.m. after Phillip Hamilton, 31, and Paul Hamilton, 29, were confronted about not wearing masks and refused to comply with the rule, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. It is not clear if the men are related.
As a guard was escorting the two men out of the store in the Van Nuys neighborhood, one of the suspects “without provocation, turned and punched” the guard, causing them both to fall to the floor, a press release stated.
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The guard broke his left arm in the fall, police said.
“A fight erupted between the two suspects and store employees,” police said.
Surveillance video from inside the store shows the guard and two other Target employees walking the men down an aisle when a brawl erupts. Two other people rush over to break up the fight.
The two men were arrested on felony battery charges and are each being held on a $50,000 bail.
Los Angeles County officials said in mid-April that people are required to wear a face mask or covering while inside a business or when coming in contact with another person.
Such rules have provoked threats or violence in some areas of the country.
The mayor of Stillwater, Oklahoma, ended his face mask rule for shoppers after just one day due to threats against retail workers. In a series of tweets on May 1, Mayor Will Joyce announced the revision to his emergency declaration requiring customers to wear face coverings.
“I hate that our businesses and their employees had to deal with abuse today, and I apologize for putting them in that position,” the mayor wrote.
“I am not the kind of person who backs down from bullies, but I also will not send someone else to fight the battle for me,” he added in a second tweet.
