Family Charged In Security Guard's Death After Mask Dispute
Three family members — a woman, her husband and her adult son — were charged Monday in the fatal shooting of a security guard at a Family Dollar store in Flint, Mich.
According to Genesee County prosecutor David Leyton, the security guard, 43-year-old Calvin Munerlyn, was shot shortly after telling the woman that her daughter could not enter the store because she wasn't wearing a mask.
Under state executive order, all customers and employees in stores are required to wear masks as a precaution against the coronavirus.
"Several witnesses at the Family Dollar said that Mr. Munerlyn had gotten into a verbal altercation with an unknown black female over not wearing a mask before the shooting had taken place," Leyton said.
About 20 minutes after the dispute between Munerlyn and the woman, later identified as Sharmel Teague, Leyton said witnesses described two men entering the Family Dollar. They were identified by the prosecutor as 44-year-old Larry Teague, Sharmel Teague's husband, and 23-year-old Ramonyea Bishop, her son.
Security camera footage showed the men arrived in the same car that Sharmel Teague, 45, drove, the prosecutor said. Larry Teague allegedly started yelling at Munerlyn, saying he disrespected his wife, while Bishop is accused of walking up to the security guard and shooting him.
All three individuals have been charged with first-degree premeditated murder and gun charges. As of Tuesday morning, Sharmel Teague has been arrested and the two men were still at large.
The Detroit Free-Press reported that Munerlyn was a father of nine and a well-known member of the community.
"When I found out what had happened to him, it really broke my heart because I knew what kind of person he was," Bryant Nolden, a Genesee County commissioner, told the Free-Press. "This was totally uncalled for, he didn't bother a soul. All he wanted to do was take care of his family and he always had his kids with him. This is a real loss for this community and really it's a big loss for me as an individual."
"That man was a legend out here, from troubled teenagers that he helped to taking care of his babies, his wife, his home," Latryna Sims-Munerlyn, Calvin's wife, told MLive.com. "That man was just lovable."
Michigan has the third-highest number of coronavirus-related deaths in the U.S. with more than 4,000. It has totaled nearly 44,000 confirmed cases as well. Genesee County has seen nearly 200 deaths and over 1,600 confirmed cases.
Meanwhile, the state has seen numerous protests against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's stay-at-home orders.
"The hostile tone that we have seen in recent days on television and on social media can permeate our society in ways we don't fully realize or anticipate," Leyton said. "They don't necessitate acts of violence and we simply cannot devolve into an 'us versus them' mentality." [Copyright 2020 NPR]
