Two women have accused a man administering COVID-19 vaccines of sexually assaulting them while they were getting their shots at a Kroger store in Michigan.
The alleged victims, aged 19 and 22, were at the supermarket in Lincoln Park, a suburb in the south of Detroit, when the man was said to have grabbed their breasts.
An account of the incident given by the two women's father, Tonez Davis, said they were taken one after the other into a private vaccination booth, which had the blinds drawn and the door closed.
A short while later, the first emerged looking uneasy, and after that, the second came out looking just as disturbed, Davis told local media.
They then said that the individual administering the shot had fondled their breasts, and asked whether that was normal for a vaccination procedure, he said.
"She has a kind of blank look on her face and I thought maybe it was just the needle," Davis told WDIV, NBC's affiliate in Detroit.
"She says, 'Dad are they supposed to squeeze your breasts while you're getting the shot?' and I said 'No, they're not supposed to do anything like that.'"
He said his daughters had only gone to get their COVID-19 vaccine shot after some persuasion. "You know how hard it is trying to get people to get this done and I've been on them," he told the channel.
Davis added that he feared there could be other victims who had yet to come forward.
Speaking to the Detroit Metro Times weekly newspaper, he added: "There's no telling how many other girls he's been doing this to. It's terrible. That was a crime."
The suspect's identity has not been revealed but Davis described him as a man possibly in his fifties.
Kroger said the alleged perpetrator was no longer involved with the store's vaccination program.
Law enforcement officials have launched an investigation and appealed for any other alleged victims to contact officers from the Lincoln Park Police Department.
Raymond Watters, the Lincoln Park police chief, told Metro Times all allegations would be taken seriously. "We're here to help people, so if this happened to other people, we definitely want to know," he said.
In a statement provided to WDIV, a spokesperson for Kroger said: "The individual in question is not currently administering vaccines. We are working with local law enforcement on this open investigation and cannot comment further at this time."
Newsweek contacted the Lincoln Park Police Department and Kroger for further comment.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
