An Asian man bravely stood his ground as two shoppers at Target yelled at him to walk away for coughing amid the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) panic.

The incident happened at a Target in the Serramonte neighborhood of Daly City, California where the Asian man was verbally assaulted by a male and female shopper, according to Instagram page @Jackfroot.

In the video, which was first posted by YouTube channel HR-Vex before being taken down over a copyright claim, a man can be seen confronting an Asian shopper for coughing. He can be seen yelling at the Asian man to walk away.

After a few seconds of confrontation, a woman entered the altercation, standing between the two men. Instead of helping to diffuse the situation, she joined to help the Caucasian man in his verbal assault.

Another customer passed by and was about to leave when he saw the altercation and quickly tried to end it.

The Asian man continued to stand his ground against the two shoppers.

According to HR-Vex, the individual who filmed the incident, the confrontation occurred on the evening of Monday March 16. Before the recording, HR-Vex heard and saw a commotion in the aisle.

“I saw a white guy try to physically attack a Filipino guy who looks Chinese,” HR-Vex told NextShark. He described the scene with the Asian man on the defensive. “He was backing up to avoid getting hit.”

HR-Vex also revealed from his perspective the reason why the scuffle first started:

“Indirectly, the white guy basically accused the Asian guy of having the coronavirus just cause he coughed and he’s Asian.”

“Whether he coughed covering his mouth or not, I didn’t see it, this isn’t an excuse to be racist, be a bully, and confront the already upset Asian guy, especially when we all need to be six feet apart,” he continued.

NextShark reached out to Target’s human resources department for comment, but an employee who identified herself as Sam declined to provide a statement regarding the incident. NextShark reached out to Target’s media relation department but was sent to voicemail and we left a message. NextShark also called the Serramonte Target location, but no one in the department we were forwarded to was available for comment.

Feature Image Courtesy of HR-Vex