SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco’s district attorney Monday released surveillance video showing the fatal shooting of a suspected shoplifter by an on-duty Walgreens security guard, along with other footage and documents that she said support her decision not to file charges against the guard.
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins released the information amid public outcry over the April 27 death of Banko Brown, a 24-year-old who was not armed, outside a downtown Walgreens. Last week, the Board of Supervisors approved a resolution urging her office and the police department to release more evidence. She cited self-defense in her decision not to charge the guard, Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony.
But the release of surveillance video did not appear to quell critics in a city dogged by brazen shoplifting and wide division over the appropriate responses to crime, particularly when the suspect is homeless or impoverished.
The footage, which does not have sound, shows Brown heading for the door with a bag in his hand when he is stopped by Anthony, who then punches him repeatedly. The two struggle until Anthony pins Brown to the ground. Meanwhile, shoppers continued to enter the store during the confrontation.
