Lifestyle

Police Look For Woman Who Intentionally Coughed On 1-Year-Old Baby

by Julie Sprankles
Updated: 
Originally Published: 
Police Look For Woman Who Coughed On 1-Year-Old Baby
San Jose Police Department abd ABC7 News Bay Area/Youtube

A California woman is in hot water after lowering her face mask and coughing (intentionally) on a one-year-old

Today, in shocking behavior by people who claim to be adults, a woman is being sought by cops for coughing in a baby’s face after arguing with the toddler’s mother. According to Mireya Mora, she took her 1-year-old son to Yogurtland in San Jose, California, earlier this month as a fun family treat. But things quickly took an unexpected and downright disgusting turn for the worse.

RELATED: Here’s What Each Type Of Your Baby’s Cough Tells You About Their Health

The woman standing in front of Mora’s family in line accused them of not following proper social distancing protocol — and when she didn’t get the response she wanted, she lowered her face mask and coughed directly on Mora’s son. And there’s little chance the timing and direction were coincidental if you ask Mora.

“She coughed super hard. It wasn’t an accident. A person with a heart that cares would not do that to a baby,” she told ABC News’ San Francisco station KGO.

Mora fears the sickening incident wasn’t solely motivated by social distancing frustration. “I believe this woman may be racist because the family in front of her is white,” said Mora of the woman, who has so far only been identified as a white female thought to be in her 60s. “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.”

The 23-year-old mother also told The Washington Post that the woman repeatedly accused her of not understanding her. Additionally, she referred to Mora as “not speaking English.”

The San Jose Police Department has since classified the woman’s behavior as assault and is seeking the public’s help in locating her. “The preliminary investigation revealed the suspect was upset the female was not maintaining proper social distancing, so the suspect removed her face mask, got close to the baby’s face, and coughed 2 – 3 times,” said Sergeant Enrique Garcia in a press release.

Although Mora stresses “it happened so fast,” she reacted as quickly as she could. Yanking the hood of her son’s stroller, she attempted to cover his face. “My hands were shaking, I couldn’t even speak. My heart was racing,” she admitted.

Fortunately, Mora’s son is okay. While he ran a slight fever after the incident, he seems fine now. But she understandably still worries that he could contract COVID-19 (the incubation period can last up to 14 days and can live in patients up to 37 days). “If he were to get sick, it’s just, I can’t even imagine,” she said.

And while the little boy so far remains physically healthy, Mora says they were both “traumatized’ by the entire ordeal. Which, honestly, I’m traumatized just from watching the video, so I can’t imagine how she must be feeling. Even if the woman accused of intentionally coughing on Mora’s son doesn’t have the virus, what she did is still so, so wrong. She could have passed any number of germs or viral infections on to the child by coughing in his face.

It seems a little insane that these things even need to be pointed out, right? Yet, apparently it’s necessary since grown-ass women are going around coughing on babies.

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