The Nelson Police Department has issued an arrest warrant for the man accused of spitting on a Salmo woman at Empire Coffee in the Adventure Hotel last November.
Jeremy Undershute was charged with assault, according to police, but so far has not appeared in court.
“He appears to have departed from Nelson,” Staff Sgt. Brian Weber told the Nelson Star in an email. “His whereabouts is not known.”
On Nov. 20, Undershute is alleged to have entered Empire Coffee, shouting at the staff about the requirement to wear a mask. When confronted by Rhonda Comeau, an accountant at the Adventure Hotel in the same building, she says he spat on her.
Later that day Comeau suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized for several days during which she had three cardiac arrests.
Her recovery has taken months and she has recently returned full time to her job.
“But I still have complications,” she told the Nelson Star on Tuesday. “A week and a half ago I ended up in the emergency room here again. So every once a while, I’ll have a little tweak, or something will go wrong. I have to stop and limit myself more than I ever have before. Mentally, I’m doing way better.”
She went back to work full time sooner than expected, however, because her boss, Adventure Hotel general manager Rob Little, became ill and she had to do his job as well as her own. Now they are both back at work, but Comeau works some of those days at home, to pace herself.
Comeau says she and Little have a shared reaction to their life-threatening illnesses.
“Both of us don’t take things for granted any more. We have realized that we can’t worry about the little things. Family and friends are what is important.”
Undershute has also been charged with assault, resisting arrest, and causing a disturbance following a different incident in downtown Nelson in August, for which he is scheduled to appear in court on June 22.
Related:
• Nelson hotel mask confrontation: perpetrator arrested, victim recovering
• 26 days later, Nelson’s Rob Little is alive after battle against COVID
bill.metcalfe@nelsonstar.com Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
