A couple having lunch at a dog park found themselves on the receiving end of pepper spray after an irate woman noticed they weren’t wearing face masks while they were eating their food.Ash O’Brien and husband Jarett Kelley had stopped for lunch with their pug at the Dusty Rhodes dog park in San Diego on Thursday when a “random old lady” confronted them and called them “idiots” for not wearing masks while eating.
When O’Brien told the woman to leave the park and stop harassing her, the woman whipped out a can of pepper spray and unleashed it on the couple.
A bystander’s video footage shows the aftermath of Kelley trying to wrestle the can away from the lunatic woman before catching a dose of spray in his face.
“Are you kidding me? You just maced him and their food because you disagree!” the bystander yelled at the assailant. “What’s wrong with you, lady?”
O’Brien can be heard crying as the woman walks away with her dogs.
O’Brien shared the video with an accompanying statement demanding justice for the senseless assault, adding she’s intent on pressing charges.
“So this happened today at Dusty Rhodes dog park today in ocean beach. This is my husband getting maced by a random old lady. We had our 3 month old pug with us. We were just sitting down eating lunch and minding our own business. We were not wearing masks because we were eating. You can’t wear a mask and eat at the same time. She kept calling us idiots and flipping me off,” O’Brien wrote.
“Then she started saying more stuff and I told her to leave the park and stop harassing us. She then came right up to our table wear we were eating, pointed the mace at me first and got a little on me, and then my husband stepped in and took the entire can. Thank god for the bystander that took this video because we are going to the police now to press charges. I am sharing this because people need to watch out for this lady in San Diego. Please share to spread awareness. That is me crying hysterically in the background because my innocent husband just got maced for no reason. We want justice.”
California’s coronavirus guidelines on masks specifically mention eating and drinking as being one of the few instances where not wearing masks is acceptable. Otherwise, it’s punishable by up to $1000 fine.
But nowhere in the state’s guidelines does it say that civilians can use non-lethal weapons to enforce this policy on the public, especially given some police are already strongly enforcing it across the country.
This is just another example of the rise of the “mask nazis” who go to extreme lengths to enforce a medically-ambiguous mask measure.
