
Lataka Mason. Photo credit: Delaware State Police
STATES CHRONICLE- On Aug. 16, the Delaware State Police have reported they were able to apprehend a woman who had reportedly attacked another woman and her child in a cart dispute earlier this month while she was shopping in a Target store in Wilmington.
According to the police, the 39-year-old Lataka Mason poured bleach on her victim’s head and endangered the welfare of that shopper’s child.
Mason currently faces multiple charges including first-degree and second-degree assault.
DSP’s Master Cpl. Jeffrey Hale said that the woman turned herself in Aug. 16 after the police publicized her name and name on their website and Facebook account.
Investigators have been looking for her for more than 14 days, and asked for the public’s assistance in identifying her in the surveillance camera footage.
State troopers were dispatched to the Brandywine Hundred store Aug. 4 following the report of an attack. A 24-year-old female customer told troopers that she and Mason started fighting after her shopping cart reportedly blocked the isle.
The fight escalated when Mason tried to get past the woman’s shopping cart and the two women’s carts collided. Reportedly, Mason got so angry that she felt the urge to physically attack her rival.
The woman grabbed a bottle of bleach and poured on the other Target customer’s head. The police noted that the highly corrosive substance accidentally hit the victim’s one-year-old baby too, who was sitting in his mother’s cart.
The attacker left the scene before troopers arrived. Witnesses said that they saw her driving off in a small white car alongside a man. Target parking lot cameras show the woman was dressed in a black and yellow dress and had braided hair. The police described her as being and African-American, “short in weight with a large build.”
The victims were taken to the hospital were their non-life-threatening injuries received medical attention.
Two weeks later “multiple tips from the public” led to the identification of Mason in the photos the police have posted on social media. The woman surrendered to Troop 1 in Penny Hill on Tuesday.
She is currently held at Baylor Women’s Correctional Institution. Reportedly, she was not able to pay the $25,000 secured bail.
Image Source: dspnewsroom.com