‘I hope you all die,’ salon owner said before hitting Fresno code enforcer with car, email says
.jpg "A parking lot outside a Fresno target was the scene of a confrontation between a salon owner and a code enforcement officer.")
A salon owner who hit a Fresno code enforcement officer with her car last week in a Target parking lot was upset after being served two pandemic shutdown notices, according to an internal city email obtained by The Fresno Bee.
The email is from a police officer who responded to the incident, sent to the code enforcement supervisor. It describes in detail what led up to the incident in the parking lot and recounts the code enforcement officer’s side of the story.
The salon is identified in the email, but The Bee was unable to reach the salon or salon owner for comment.
According to the email:
Two code enforcement officers were responding to complaints about businesses violating state coronavirus orders on Friday when they stopped just before 11 a.m. at the Target on Bullard and Blackstone avenues. They were driving separate city vehicles identified as code enforcement.
When one of the officers returned to his vehicle, a woman one row over in the parking lot began yelling profanities at him, the email says.
“F--- you. F--- Mayor Brand. F--- Newsom. F--- you all. Find something better to do. I hope you all die. Somebody should put a bullet in your brain,” the woman shouted.
The code enforcement officer waved at her and responded, “Keep it classy.”
The woman drove around the parking lot and pulled up behind the code enforcement officer’s vehicle, all the while shouting similar statements. The code enforcement officer took out his cellphone, stepped behind the woman’s car and tried to take a photo of her license plate to make a complaint.
The woman put her car in reverse and hit the code enforcement officer. He was not seriously injured.
The woman initially denied hitting the code enforcement officer but later apologized profusely when speaking with police, the email says. She was not arrested.
Later, the code enforcement officer recognized the woman as the owner of a salon given two notices by code enforcement. She cussed out code enforcement officers when receiving the notices, as well, the code enforcement officer told police, according to the email.
Salons were shut down for months starting in March by a number of government guidelines to reduce the spread of coronavirus. Some briefly reopened in June but California Gov. Gavin Newsom walked back those reopenings, pushing some businesses to provide services outside.
Fresno City Attorney Doug Sloan, who oversees code enforcement, declined to comment for this story, citing the pending investigation.
Earlier this week, Sgt. Jeff LaBlue, the Fresno police public information officer, told The Bee that surveillance footage from Target was inconclusive. The case will be sent to the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office for possible assault charges, LaBlue said.