Salon worker confronted code enforcer in Fresno parking lot. Now police are involved
.jpg "FILE - This June 29, 2016 file photo shows a Target store in Hialeah, Fla. Target is hiring more than 130,000 people as it ramps up for the critical holiday season, up 8% from last year. The retailer is doubling the number of seasonal jobs to handle online orders to 8,000. While the jobs are described as season, Target said Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2019 that 40% of the 120,000 people hired last year stayed with the Minneapolis company after the holidays. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File)")
Fresno police are investigating a woman affiliated with a northwest Fresno salon after she allegedly confronted a city of Fresno code enforcement officer in a Target parking lot last week and bumped him with her car.
Police were dispatched to a collision just before 11 a.m. Friday in the parking lot of the Target at Bullard and Blackstone avenues, said Sgt. Jeff LaBlue, a Fresno Police Department public information officer.
LaBlue didn’t name the salon the woman is affiliated with, and he said it’s unclear if she’s the owner or just works there.
The woman allegedly took issue with the code enforcement officer because someone from code enforcement had visited her salon, LaBlue said.
It’s unclear whether the code enforcement visit was connected to COVID-19 enforcement. 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.
“What we do know is this code enforcement officer wasn’t involved in whatever action was done with her business,” LaBlue said. “The business wasn’t cited but was contacted by code enforcement at some point. We don’t know her role at the salon, but she was upset the salon was contacted by code enforcement.”
During the confrontation at Target, the code enforcement officer took out his cellphone to take a photo of the woman’s license plate. The woman then put her car in reverse and struck the code enforcement at a slow rate of speed, LaBlue said. The code enforcement officer was not knocked to the ground. There were discrepancies in reports to officers on whether the woman intended to hit the code enforcement officer, LaBlue said.
Fresno Police assault detectives are investigating the case. Surveillance footage from the shopping center was inconclusive, LaBlue said.
Police plan to contact the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office regarding the incident and may recommend filing assault charges against the woman, LaBlue said.
This story was originally published July 27, 2020 at 5:06 PM.