California man in KKK hood while grocery shopping sparks investigation
Vons employees asked the man repeatedly to remove his hood or leave the store.
A man caused a storm of controversy on Monday, May 4, after he was spotted grocery shopping in a Ku Klux Klan hood in the San Diego area.
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The unidentified man was photographed at a Vons store in Santee, California, on Saturday, May 2—just one day after a San Diego County mandate requiring all residents to wear face coverings in public went into effect.
Local resident Tiam Tellez shared the photos of the man on Facebook, calling the incident “troublesome.”
“So I want to say Thank you to the management team,” Tellez wrote alongside a series of photos of the man pushing a shopping cart in the store. “Several employees came over together and told the man to either remove the hood or he would have to leave, so he removed the hood.”
He added, “So troublesome in so many ways this is still happening in Santee at Vons. Disgusting!”
Santee Mayor John Minto told the New York Daily News that he would like to hold the man accountable for his racist display and that local authorities are investigating the matter.
“To my knowledge, we still don’t know who that man is, but I would love to know who that person is and hold them accountable. I know the [San Diego County] Sheriff [Department] is looking into it,” Minto said. “It’s a sad reminder of intolerance. The people who live in our city deserve better.”
He went on to explain that while wearing the hood isn’t a crime, it does warrant a larger discussion on bigotry and racism.
“An intolerant person just standing there may not rise to the level of an actual crime, however, I think at a minimum there should be a conversation with this person,” Minto told the publication. “I would like to know what in the world made him think he could get away with something like this. Why would you do that? This is not acceptable. How could anybody miss that message?”
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San Diego County Supervisor Dianne Jacobs echoed Minto’s sentiments in a statement of her own on Sunday, May 3.
“The images I’ve seen are abhorrent,” she told San Diego Union Tribune. “This blatant racism has no place in Santee or any part of San Diego County. It is not who we are. It is not what we stand for and can’t be tolerated.”
A representative for Vons also denounced the man’s actions, reiterating that store employees asked the man repeatedly to remove the hood or leave the establishment.
“At Vons, fostering an environment of courtesy, dignity, and respect is one of our highest priorities, and we work hard to hold everyone in our stores to these standards, including customers,” spokeswoman Melissa Hill said in a statement to the Tribune. “This was a disturbing incident for our associates and customers, and we are reviewing with our team how to best handle such inappropriate situations in the future.”
