Woman appears to cough in musician’s face at Dallas-area show amid COVID, video shows
After singer-songwriter Clayton Gardner asked a woman at his concert to respect social distancing, she ignored his concerns, grabbed him by the bandanna and came close to his face, video of the incident shows.
“I have practiced very safe hygiene and socially distanced myself from the start of Covid to protect my 3-year-old daughter,” Gardner wrote in a Facebook post after the incident. “In a matter of seconds this lady took that away from me.”
Gardner shared the video on Facebook and said the woman coughed on him. He was hosting an outdoor show with about 30 attendees Friday night in the Las Colinas area of Irving at the Texican Court, according to his Facebook post. Gardner declined to comment beyond what he wrote on Facebook, and the venue did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
About 15 minutes into his show, the woman walked up to Gardner and requested a song, he wrote. Gardner told the woman she could request a song from 7 feet away, which is considered a safe distance amid the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, the woman got closer.
“Are you for real right now?” Gardner told her. “Please get away from me.”
She then grabbed a bandanna on Gardner’s neck and appeared to cough on him.
Gardner asked someone off-camera to get the women away from him, to which the woman responded, “Are you for real?”
In a Facebook post, Gardner said he was outraged by the situation and felt defenseless. He wrote that he chooses to protect himself from COVID-19 and doesn’t care what anyone else thinks.
“I would much rather be at home but unfortunately I have to play some gigs to pay my bills,” he wrote. “I can’t even do that safely and that’s disgraceful.”
He chose to share the video because he wanted to let others know there’s people out there who do these things in the middle of a pandemic.
In a follow-up post, Gardner said the women later apologized to him, and he forgave her. He urged people not to find her.
Now, the artist will stay away from his daughter for a couple of days to make sure he isn’t sick.
This story was originally published July 21, 2020 at 4:37 PM.
