Woman arrested in bear spray attack outside Lafayette grocery store

Police have arrested a 74-year-old woman suspected of using bear spray on several people outside a Lafayette grocery store on the morning of July 25, according to a Facebook post from the Lafayette Police Department. 

An argument between two people in a parking lot on the 3600 block of Mt. Diablo Boulevard escalated to one of them pointing bear spray out of the driver side window and spraying the other person, according to police. The person sprayed it a second time before fleeing the parking lot in their vehicle, exposing eight people to the bear spray and sending one of them to the hospital, police said. Police added that the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District treated other victims at the scene. 

Police arrested the 74-year-old Monica Thomas of Oakland on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and unlawful use of tear gas, and she was booked at the Martinez Detention Facility. Bear spray is an aerosol spray used to deter a charging bear, which California law puts in the same category as tear gas — it can only legally be used for self-defense.

While it is unclear which grocery store the argument happened outside, the 3600 block of Mt. Diablo Boulevard includes both a Trader Joe’s location and Diablo Foods. SFGATE could not reach Lafayette police for comment in time for publication. 

In May, a similar incident occurred in Gilroy: A Safeway store was temporarily shut down after an altercation between two women led to one of them deploying bear spray, the Gilroy Police Department said in a news release. Police said that after they separated the two women, one 54 and the other 43, both were arrested on battery-related charges. Several people in the store were exposed to the bear spray, although no one was taken to the hospital.