Coronavirus: Two suspects cough on arresting officers in Mayerthorpe: RCMP

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Wednesday, April 15 to include an additional charge laid against one of the accused.

A man and a woman have each been charged with assaulting an officer after they both coughed on their arresting officers Sunday.

According to a news release Sunday afternoon, RCMP were called to 46 Avenue and 49 Street in Mayerthrope around 7 a.m. April 11 for complaints of a break-and-enter to a home, and mischief to a number of vehicles in the area.

RCMP say they found the male suspect and he was exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19.

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According to the release, while RCMP were arresting the man, he purposely coughed into an officer’s face. Police said they took the man to the hospital to have “a pre-existing injury, not related to his arrest” checked out.

While the man was at the hospital a woman came to visit him, but RCMP said she “became disruptive and had to be escorted out of the hospital, “at which time she purposely coughed on one of the RCMP officers.”

Not long after, hospital staff reported the same woman was breaking into vehicles in the parking lot of the hospital.

The release described how officers arrested the woman, but she resisted. The woman was placed inside the police vehicle, where she “caused extensive damage.”

Police said the woman was also exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19.

Jayden James Topley, 20, of Lac Ste-Anne, Alta. has been charged with assault on a police officer and four counts of mischief under $5,000.

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Charlotte Gileen Mills, 35, of Barrhead County Alta., is facing two counts of assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, count of mischief under $5,000 and one count of mischief over $5,000.

Topley will stay in custody until his first court date of April 15, 2020. Mills was released on $2,000 cash bail and is now under house arrest with a number of conditions. Her next court appearance is June 25, 2020.

On Monday night, RCMP said they received a call that a suspicious vehicle was parked in a lot near the Pleasant View Lodge in the area of 42 Avenue in Mayerthorpe. A suspicious person was seen walking around the lot, police said Tuesday.

Police said they attended the scene and arrested Mills, who was unlawfully at large contrary to the conditions of her judicial release on April 12, that specified 24-hour house arrest.

Mills has since been charged with failing to comply with the conditions of her release. She was taken into custody and is set to speak to bail on Wednesday morning.