Firefighters Ticketed for Facemasks in Santa Elena

Some fire fighters in Santa Elena got a surprise from the police just as they were changing shifts this morning. But, it wasn’t a report of a blaze. Instead, they got ticketed for not wearing their masks. The incident captured on video went viral today as the public reacted to the police mobile unit issuing citations to Ebony Wright, Robert Vernon, and Carlitos Arnold. The trio face five hundred-dollar fines for their alleged offense of failure to wear a mouth and face covering in public. Even as the station supervisor tried to intervene and find out what was going on, the officer went on to ticket the fire service personnel.

Voice of: Ebony Wright, Santa Elena Fire Station

“We were sitting on a bench in our compound talking to our supervisor, explaining to him what transpired throughout the night and in the morning. While we were talking to the supervisor, a police mobile, I think Sergeant Pinelo his name was – he was driving the mobile with a W beside him. The two of them came, we saw the mobile coming, but we just look back in our mind saying we just hope dehn noh di bring bad news for us to report to a fire while we are coming off duties. The police vehicle stopped, Sergeant Pinelo jumped out [and] with no respect to our supervisor or anything and he came straight to us and holler, all ah unu wah get ticket right now. We dah like wait what? Yeah, give wi unu ID, give we wah ID; unu wah get ticket. The supervisor jump in because we can’t believe that we deh dah work on our compound di talk to our supervisor and this police just come to we and wah sergeant to be exact. Come to we without manners and be like unu wah get ticket right now. So we dah like fi what? Unu di sit down out yah without mask and we dah like, but we deh ina our compound. And he dah I noh want hear that; all ah unu wa get ticket right now. And so I say, I noh have no ID so he dah like well you wah get lock down right now. But I had my social [security card] on me, but we just mi want know weh all ah this bout. So our supervisor di talk to ahn like okay these people just di come off duty from last night, just give them a warning, but he noh want hear that. And our supervisor di haul he one side di try talk to he, but this man di go off pan we.”