A fight in a Walmart in Arbutus, Maryland between two women sent 19 other people to the hospital! According to authorities, a 33-year-old woman followed another woman who she had an issue with into the Walmart superstore and proceeded to assault her! Once the woman had her victim on the floor, she picked up bottles of bleach and ammonia and starting pouring them on the victim. The fumes from the bleach and ammonia forced EMTs to take 19 people to the hospital to be checked out! Read the full story after the jump.
An arrest has been made in the fight between two women that forced the evacuation of a Walmart Superstore and sent 19 people to the hospital Saturday morning.
Theresa Monique Jefferson, 33, of Halethorpe, was charged with first -and second-degree assault, theft under $100 and malicious destruction of property. She remained held at the Baltimore County Detention Center on $350,000 bail.
Police Officer Shawn Vinson said Jefferson followed another woman into the store, assaulted her, and poured bleach and ammonia on her.
Investigators said the assault stemmed from an ongoing dispute between the women, saying the victim’s boyfriend has a child in common with the suspect.
“The suspect grabbed whatever she could grab from the aisle at the time,” Vinson said. “She ended up grabbing bleach and a bottle of ammonia as she was assaulting the victim down on the ground and continued to pour these on her.”
Police, firefighters and hazardous materials crews were called to the store on Washington Boulevard in Arbutus shortly before 11 a.m. for an assault call.
“The problem was, with bleach and ammonia in a closed environment, they can be strong irritants to the eye and to the respiratory passages. So, at that standpoint and after we were getting a lot of calls from inside the store, it was best to call the hazardous materials team and evacuate the store,” said Glenn Blackwell, director of the Baltimore County Fire Department Fire-Rescue Academy.
“We transported 19 patients, none of them with what we believe to be serious injuries except one patient who was transported with bleach to the eye,” Blackwell said.
Fire officials said 19 people were taken to hospitals as a result of the incident, including a store employee. One person was taken to the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins, and the other 18 people were taken to Baltimore-Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie; Northwest Hospital in Randallstown; Harbor Hospital and St. Agnes Hospital, both in Baltimore City.
The condition of the victim was not immediately known.
Hazardous materials crews examined the store after employees cleaned the area. The store reopened at about 1 p.m.
Walmart released a statement saying they do not expect this type of behavior from its customers and apologized for any inconvenience.
Authorities said after Jefferson left the store, she went to the Baltimore County Police Department’s Wilkens Precinct, where she was placed under arrest.
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