A 74-year-old woman turned a Trader Joe’s parking lot into a peppery cloud of chaos, sending one person to the hospital.
The East Bay woman was arrested after unleashing a bear spray attack after an argument outside the grocery store on the 3600 block of Mount Diablo Boulevard in Lafayette at around 10:40 a.m. Saturday morning.
The woman, an Oakland resident named Monica Thomas, fled the scene after the spray attack, but witnesses provided officers of the her vehicle information and the direction she was going.
Orinda police officers located the suspect vehicle and detained the driver on westbound Highway 24, according to a statement from the Lafayette Police Department.
“Lafayette police later determined an argument between two people occurred in the parking lot with one of them pointing bear spray out of the driver side window and spraying the other person. As the person drove away, she sprayed it a second time before leaving the parking lot,” the department added.
Eight people in total were exposed to the spray and were treated by Contra Costa County Fire Protection District. One had to be transported to the hospital.
Thomas was booked at the Martinez Detention Facility following charges of assault with a deadly weapon and illegal use of tear gas.
