As coronavirus restrictions and safety measures are being lifted nationwide, those who opposed them are still continuing with their violence. While many states have lifted mask requirements in some spaces, stores and other establishments have the ability to enforce them. But these enforcements do not come without the risk of violence.

Since the start of the pandemic, essential and retail workers across the country have risked both the increased chance of infection and potential physical harm as individuals rebel and retaliate against safety regulations employees are asked to enforce. Multiple incidents have been reported in which anti-maskers have resorted to violence when employees have asked them to wear a mask. In the most recent incident of anti-masker violence, after a supermarket cashier asked a man in Georgia to wear a mask, the man allegedly open-fired inside the store, NBC News reported. The man not only killed the cashier but wounded others in the incident, including a sheriff’s deputy, authorities said. 

Identified as Victor Lee Tucker, the 30-year-old man will likely face murder charges, DeKalb County Sheriff Melody Maddox told members of the press, according to NBC News. The incident occurred at the Big Bear Supermarket in DeKalb County. According to police officials, Tucker was checking out when the argument began. He left the store without making a purchase only to immediately return with a handgun and allegedly shoot the cashier. 

“Tucker walked directly back to the cashier, pulled out a handgun and shot her,” the Georgia Bureau of Investigation wrote in the news release. The cashier was pronounced dead at the hospital and has not yet been identified.

When Tucker began firing a deputy reserve officer with the sheriff’s office fired back, DeKalb County Sheriff Melody Maddox said. The officer was wearing a bulletproof vest and was taken to the hospital in stable condition. 

“There was some confrontation, argument—I’m not sure exactly what—in reference to the wearing of masks, at which time the subject pulled out a weapon and shot the cashier,” Maddox said at a news conference. Several people were inside the business. She said a female cashier was killed when Tucker opened fire. He was then arrested by two responding officers while attempting to leave the supermarket by crawling out the front door.

Unfortunately, incidents like this are not uncommon. Despite research proving that wearing a mask can significantly prevent the contraction of COVID-19, people across the country have refused to wear masks. Videos of anti-maskers have gone viral since the start of the pandemic with many not only attacking but killing those who have asked them to wear masks despite surges in cases.

While Americans are being vaccinated at record numbers and things are returning semi-back to normal, we are still in a state of a pandemic. Wearing a mask is the least we can do to stay safe, especially when requested.