Luna County official posts complaint about 'Asians' and COVID-19

Clarification: After this story was published online, Tyler Massey's title as it appears on Luna County's official website staff listings was modified from "emergency management director" to safety and risk coordinator. The story was modified on March 27 to reflect the change.

DEMING - Luna County's safety and risk coordinator posted a video complaint on the Snapchat social media platform last week casting blame for the novel coronavirus pandemic on an ethnic group.

In the video, apparently captured on March 18 and subsequently obtained by the Sun-News, Tyler Massey appears to be driving an automobile while recording video of himself describing an encounter he had at Walmart while shopping for refreshments for a county presentation on the COVID-19 outbreak.

"There were about six Asians," Massey says in the video, alleging that after cutting him off in the parking lot, "they parked right next to me. They were all around me. They were all buying sh** in bulk and I'm like, hello, it was your f***ing cousins that did this to us."

As a result of the encounter, Massey says, "I think I have been exposed," declaring that he would self-quarantine for a day.

By design, photos and videos posted on Snapchat are automatically deleted after being viewed or after varying timeframes.

As of Wednesday, the New Mexico Department of Health had reported 112 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus. Also on Wednesday, the state reported the first death from COVID-19 — a man in his 70s in Eddy County. No cases have been confirmed in Luna County, though neighboring Doña Ana County has 13 cases.

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Massey had served as Hidalgo County's chief deputy assessor before being elected county treasurer in 2012. He was re-elected in 2016. On March 1, he publicly announced his resignation from office in order to take the job coordinating Luna County's risk and safety awareness program. He succeeded Mark Jasso, who retired last December.

Massey was also a finalist for the Luna County Manager position in 2019.

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Luna County Attorney Charles Kretek verified Monday that Massey remained a county employee and said county manager Chris Brice "addressed the matter internally." Beyond that, Kretek wrote, "Luna County does not comment on personnel matters as a matter of policy."

Massey did not respond to inquiries from the Sun-News by phone and email.

In press briefings, President Donald Trump has repeatedly referred to the novel coronavirus as the "Chinese virus" despite reports of increased harassment and hate crimes directed toward people of Chinese heritage in the United States amid the COVID-19 outbreak. The president has denied that the description is racist.

The World Health Organization has warned against using descriptions linking the virus to race, and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has said, "Ethnicity is not what causes the novel coronavirus."

More: Coronavirus blog: Everything you need to know

Algernon D'Ammassa can be reached at 575-541-5451, adammassa@lcsun-news.com or @AlgernonWrites on Twitter.