Arrest warrant issued after woman rejects mask at Texas bank

GALVESTON, Texas An arrest warrant has been issued for a woman who refused to wear a mask at a Texas bank and told a police officer, “What are you going to do, arrest me?”

Police have issued a warrant for the arrest of Terry Wright, 65, of Grants Pass, Oregon. The incident Thursday at a Bank of America in Galveston was captured by the officer’s body camera, reports The Galveston County Daily News.

Police say they have received a warrant for arrest and charge of criminal offense.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday put an end to nationwide orders requiring people to wear face masks in public places, stating that businesses must decide for themselves what COVID-19 precautions to take on their properties. Many businesses have kept their own mask rules in place.

Advertisement

According to police, a bank manager called police after Wright refused to wear a mask while inside, and when asked to leave the building.

Police released the video footage from the officer’s body room on Friday. The video shows Wright standing in the middle of the bank’s foyer, surrounded by other customers who were all wearing masks.

Wright told the officer she came to the bank to make a withdrawal. The officer asked her to go outside or put on a mask. She refused.

“What are you going to do, arrest me?” she asked.

He replied, “Yes, because I intruded on the premises.” And then she said, ‘This is hilarious.’

Wright then told the officer the law said she did not have to wear a mask. When the officer took out handcuffs, she pulled away and started walking towards the door. The officer stopped her and forced her to the ground. After being handcuffed, she complained that her foot was injured.

Advertisement

“Police brutality here,” she tells the other customers at the bank. Answers of “no” and “no, it is not” could be heard.

Police said she sustained minor injuries during the fight and was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Wright told The Washington Post that she had never covered her face in stores, not even when the nationwide mandate was instituted. She said she was in an RV park across the bay from Galveston in Hitchcock, Texas.

She told the newspaper that she was ‘attacked’ and compared the requirements for mask to the way Nazi Germany forced Jews to identify with a star of David. She also said she believed in a ‘plandemic’ in reference to a documentary video in which an anti-vaccine activist promotes a series of dubious, false and potentially dangerous coronavirus theories.