According to King County Prosecutors, a man tried to attack a Bellevue restaurant worker with a meat cleaver after being asked to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccine. Michael Dousa, aged 58, lunged at an Applebee’s bartender with a meat cleaver after he was asked to leave the restaurant after not being able to provide his proof of vaccination, investigators say.
Detectives say when Dousa got outside after being asked to leave, he was yelling and waving his knife around and then went after the bartender with the cleaver raised over his head. The bartender was able to close the door before being struck.
“I don’t think violence is ever the answer,” said Levi Hudson, a patron at the restaurant. “I don’t think you should be violent because I think that is one of the most ridiculous things you can do. You’re not helping people by being violent.”
His sister Angela, also with him, said “We’ve had family who [have] gotten sick and who [have] died from COVID…it’s kind of frustrating to see people just come in and not wear a mask and be violent.”
In a similar situation just a few weeks prior, Angela Nommensen was seen on a surveillance camera repeatedly refusing to wear her mask inside of a gas station. When the clerk was finally able to get her outside, she pulled a gun on him.
Prosecutors admit that they’re noticing a trend with these types of crimes. “Maybe it’s because [we] are so close to being at the end of the pandemic or they’re getting so frustrated [that] we’re not done, but either way when you pull a meat cleaver on somebody, when you pull a gun at a gas station and we can prove that case, you’re going to get charged for it,” said Kasey McNerthney, Director of Communications at the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Dousa has been charged with felony assault, and on Monday Nommensen pleaded not guilty to felony harassment.