Flint — When Sharmel Teague arrived at the Family Dollar across 5th Avenue from the University of Michigan-Flint’s William S. White building on Friday…
Flint — When Sharmel Teague arrived at the Family Dollar across 5th Avenue from the University of Michigan-Flint’s William S. White building on Friday afternoon, she was wearing a protective mask.
Her daughter was not.
After security guard Calvin Munerlyn denied her daughter entry, and then denied Teague service, an altercation erupted that left 43-year-old father dead of a gunshot wound to the head.
Police were hunting on Monday for two men accused of killing Munerlyn because they felt he “disrespected” the women by insisting Teague’s daughter wear a mask in the store as required by executive orders designed to combat the spread of COVID-19.
The case comes amid a bitter political battle regarding aspects of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s orders to combat the pandemic, which sparked at least two protests at the state Capitol and caught the attention of President Donald Trump. A day after the last demonstration last Thursday, Trump tweeted that Whitmer should “give a little” because Michiganians “want their lives back.”
While there was little question that the shooting at the Family Dollar was personal and not political, it is a high-profile byproduct of the pandemic that has killed at least 4,100 in Michigan even as measures to combat it remain controversial.
Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said Monday he charged Ramonyea Bishop, 23; Larry Teague, 44; and Sharmel Teague, 45, with first-degree murder in connection with Friday’s fatal shooting of Munerlyn at the Family Dollar store at 877 E.
