'I've got the virus!' New Mexico man spits at officers -- then assures them COVID 'doesn't live in summertime'

A New Mexico man spit at police officers and claimed to have the coronavirus during a confrontation over wearing a mask.

Newly released body camera video shows 77-year-old Charles Madrid arguing with police after a Walmart employee asked him to wear a mask inside the Las Cruces store, reported KVIA-TV.

"I'm not going to do it," Madrid tells officers. "Put me in jail."

Officer Jackson Brown then asked the man to leave if he continued to refuse, and he threatened to charge him with trespassing if he did not leave the store.

"I've got the f*cking virus," Madrid says. "I'm going to spit in your face."

Officers wrestled Madrid into handcuffs and placed a spit guard over his face, and he was taken to a nearby hospital after complaining that his knees hurt -- and then he made statements echoing President Donald Trump's assurances.

"Don't worry, you ain't going to get that virus," Madrid tells officers at the hospital. "It doesn't live in the summertime. It dies out like the flu."

Madrid was charged with three counts of assault on a peace officer for spitting at police.