Supermarket cashier shot dead after ‘telling customer to wear a mask’

A dispute over a face mask has left one woman dead and three people injured at a supermarket in the US.

A cashier at the food store in Georgia was gunned down simply for asking a customer to put on his face covering correctly, according to local reports.

The horror occurred on Monday afternoon following an argument between the Big Bear supermarket worker and the suspect after she asked him to “please pull up his mask,” authorities said.

“There was some confrontation, argument [...] in reference to the wearing of masks, at which time the subject pulled out a weapon and shot the cashier,” DeKalb County Sheriff Melody Maddox said in a statement.

The customer, who has been named as Victor Lee Tucker, Jr., 30, then left the shop without making his purchase.

However, he immediately returned inside and, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), “walked directly back to the cashier, pulled out a handgun and shot her.”

The victim, who has not yet been identified, was later pronounced dead at Grady Memorial Hospital, the GBI said in a press release.

A reserve deputy, who was a part-time security worker in the supermarket, exchanged fire with the suspect and both were wounded, the sheriff said.

Maddox said the deputy was hit twice by gunfire but, luckily, was wearing a bulletproof vest. He was transported to a nearby health centre to receive treatment.

Police arrested Tucker as he attempted to crawl out the shop’s front door. Both he and the unnamed deputy are said to be in a stable condition.

The GBI said a second cashier was grazed by a bullet. She was treated for her injury at the scene.

The agency is now conducting an independent investigation into the shooting.