Newtown Woman Removes Mask, Spits In Shopper's Face: Police

NEWTOWN, CT — A confrontation between two shoppers at a Newtown Big Y ended in a 40-year-old woman removing her mask and spitting in the shopper's face because he wouldn't follow the store's social distancing rules, police said Tuesday. The woman, Sandy Hook resident Martine Shanchuk, was arrested.

According to a summary released by the Newtown Police Department, officers were called to the Big Y on Queen Street shortly after 4 p.m. on May 18. In a 911 call, a person complained that "while shopping at Big Y, he got into an argument with a woman about going the wrong way down an aisle."

The dispute over aisle etiquette began when Shanchuk apparently tried to enforce the store's social distancing policy on her own. (In March, when the state's coronavirus-related shutdown mandated new safety procedures for essential businesses, Big Y began operating with customer limits, plexiglass screens at cashier stations and one-way aisles which allow shoppers to maintain 6 feet of distance.)

When officers arrived, Shanchuk explained that after spotting a "young male" walking in the wrong direction down an aisle, "She felt it was necessary to tell him to turn around and enforce Bit Y's aisle rules herself," police said.

From there, the situation escalated. When the other shopper didn't turn around, Shanchuk "stopped in the aisle to prevent him from continuing down the aisle in the wrong direction."

According to the complaint, Shanchuk "continued to yell at the other individual in the store [and] because he was not listening to her she removed her mask and spit in the man's face."

Police arrested Shanchuk on a single charge of breach of peace in the second-degree. She was released on written promise to appear for a court hearing in July.