‘Very disturbing.’ Man who claims to have COVID-19 kisses police car, Michigan cops say

A man in Michigan is facing a number of charges after claiming he had coronavirus while touching shopping carts at a local grocery store then kissing a police car Friday, officials say.

Police responded to a Kroger grocery store in Mount Morris around 10:50 a.m. after an employee called 911 and said a man who claimed to have COVID-19 was pushing shopping carts around the store and putting his hands in his pants, according to news release.

COVID-19, now a global pandemic, is an infectious respiratory illness spread person-to-person, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

The caller said the man had also been “verbally aggressive” toward employees and took shopping carts from customers in the parking lot after they were finished with them, the release said.

When police arrived, they found the man in the parking lot where he was arrested. On the way to jail, police say the man kissed a window in the police car leaving “visible residue” in what officials are calling “an apparent attempt to spread the virus to police and others,” according to the release.

“This was a very disturbing incident that has placed many people in fear for their health and safety and has disrupted an already stressed situation as residents attempt to carry on with essential everyday routines,” Prosecutor David Leyton said in the release.

Jonathan David-Asher Miracle, 26, is charged with harmful substance – person falsely exposed, malicious destruction of police property and assaulting, resisting or obstructing police — all felonies, the release said. He is currently in Genesee County Jail.

Miracle tested negative for coronavirus, according to Gray News.

Mount Morris is roughly eight miles north of Flint.

This story was originally published March 30, 2020 at 10:22 AM with the headline "‘Very disturbing.’ Man who claims to have COVID-19 kisses police car, Michigan cops say."