Crime & Justice

Missouri Man Charged for Making a Terror Threat After Licking Walmart Deodorant in Coronavirus Video

YIKES

An NIH study found that the coronavirus could remain stable on surfaces for anywhere between several hours to a few days.

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A 26-year-old Missouri man was charged with making a terrorist threat after allegedly posting a video on social media that showed him licking a row of deodorant at Walmart and asking, “Who’s scared of the coronavirus?” According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Cody Lee Pfister was arrested Monday by the Warrenton Police Department for the March 11 video. Warren County Prosecuting Attorney's Office charged him with a terrorist threat in the second degree. Court documents state that Pfister “knowingly caused a false belief or fear that a condition involving danger to life existed,” and he acted “with reckless disregard of the risk causing the evacuation, quarantine or closure” of the Walmart. His next court date is slated to take place on Wednesday.

The licking video comes as people have been strongly advised to maintain distance from individuals out in public and to cough and sneeze into their elbows—rather than in their hands or in the air. The coronavirus can remain stable on surfaces for several hours to a few days, a National Institutes of Health study found.

Read it at St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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