Authorities in San Jose, California, are asking for the public’s help to identify a white woman who was caught on camera coughing on a 1-year-old Hispanic boy at a local Yogurtland store.
A surveillance video released by police shows the woman walk over to a stroller and cough at least two times over the young child.
The boy’s mother described the incident and what she believes was the motive behind the attack.
“Coughing on someone’s face. She did it on purpose it’s not like she did it on accident, oh cough, cough – no she purposely coughed on my son’s face,” Mireya Mora told local news station ABC7 News Bay Area.
Mora says the woman standing in front of her last Friday got mad she was too close in line.
“It happened so quick I was in shock. She got close, she took off her mask, and she coughed three times super hard on my son’s face,” said Mora.
Mora says she believes what happened was motivated by race.
“I believe this woman may be racist because the family in front of her is white. Me and my grandma are Hispanic and she started telling me about my distance and harassing me and my son once I started speaking Spanish to my grandma,” said Mora.
Watch the interview and the surveillance video below:
Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Dan Bowman of the San Jose Police Department’s Assaults Unit at 408-277-4161.
Here’s the surveillance video:
