Fort Worth police plan to charge a man who claimed he had COVID-19 and coughed on people at a Fort Worth laundromat with making a terroristic threat.
Police say Jeffrey Smith was sleeping at a laundromat on South Hulen Street Monday when another person confronted him and told him to leave the property. Smith "became irate" and coughed on that person and said he had COVID-19. He then ran away.
Police found him not far from the laundromat and arrested him. He was taken to a local hospital out of an abundance of caution. Police say they plan to charge him with making a terroristic threat, which is a Class B misdemeanor.
"The seriousness of the current COVID-19 crisis cannot be understated and any threat of using the virus, whether infected or not, will be vigorously investigated and appropriate law enforcement action will be taken," Fort Worth police wrote in a statement.
This is the third reported instance of someone in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in the last three days. Earlier Tuesday, Grapevine police arrested a 27-year-old man after he allegedly coughed in an officer’s face while claiming he had COVID-19. Over the weekend, a Carrollton woman posted videos to Snapchat saying she would cough on people to give them COVID-19. She has since been arrested and faces a terroristic threat charge.
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