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New Jersey Man Assaults Shopper, Blames Him for Coronavirus: Police

A conversation at a New Jersey ShopRite turned violent Sunday when a 65-year-old used a racial slur while blaming another shopper for COVID-19, police said.

A New Jersey man is facing several charges after allegedly using a racial slur and assaulting a fellow shopper at a ShopRite Sunday while blaming him for the coronavirus pandemic, authorities said. The 65-year-old man, who has not been identified, has been charged with making terroristic threats, simple assault, two counts of bias intimidation, and two counts of harassment for the Sunday night incident at the ShopRite in Sussex County, according to the Franklin Police Department. Authorities said at about 8:20 p.m., the 65-year-old was chatting with another man in the check-out line about the “large number of people in the store buying up all the products” when the conversation suddenly turned physical. He allegedly assaulted the man “while referring to him using a racial slur and blaming him, in part, for the COVID-19 pandemic” before he was arrested at the store, authorities said.