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Three people were charged Monday with fatally shooting a security guard at a downtown Flint Family Dollar after he turned their relative away because she wasn’t wearing a face mask, which is currently mandatory while shopping in Michigan.
Sharmel Teague, who was wearing a mask at the time, tried to enter the Flint Family Dollar store with her unmasked daughter Friday when she was stopped by Calvin Munerlyn, the security guard. An altercation ensued, and Teague spit and yelled at Munerlyn until she was asked to leave, according to the Detroit Free Press. The daughter has not been named nor accused of any crime.
About 20 minutes after they left, Teague’s husband, Larry Edward Teague Jr., and her adult son, Ramonyea Bishop, returned and confronted Munerlyn, known to friends as “Duper.” Bishop then allegedly shot Munerlyn in the back of the head, according to Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton. Munerlyn, a 43-year-old father of nine, was then transported to the nearby Hurley Medical Center and pronounced dead.
Leyton said Monday that his office has now charged Sharmel Teague, her son, and her husband, with first-degree murder. Officers arrested Sharmel but are still searching for Larry Teague and Bishop, according to the Detroit News.
“From all indications, Mr. Munerlyn was simply doing his job in upholding the governor’s executive order related to the COVID-19 pandemic for the safety of store employees and customers,” Leyton said in a statement Monday. The state’s mask order is intended to protect both customers and employees from COVID-19, which has hit Flint and nearby Detroit particularly hard.
Larry Teague was also hit with a misdemeanor charge for not wearing a face mask inside the store, according to the Associated Press.
“It is important that the governor’s order be respected and adhered to, and for someone to lose their life over it is beyond comprehension,” Leyton said in a statement Monday.
A GoFundMe created to support Munerlyn’s wife and children had raised more than $180,000 as of Tuesday morning.
The day before Munerlyn’s death, armed protesters, many without masks, swarmed Michigan’s Capitol building in Lansing to confront Gov. Gretchen Whitmer over the state’s controversial stay-at-home order and her efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
“It is incredible the people that continue to show up to work to protect everyone else,” Whitmer said of Munerlyn’s death at her press conference Monday, according to the Detroit Free Press. “It’s incredibly sad that in this crisis, this life was lost.”
Cover: This undated booking photo provided by the Genesee County prosecutor’s office shows Sharmel Teague. (Genesee County Prosecutor’s Office via AP)
