The Walgreens security guard who fatally shot a suspected shoplifter in April will not face charges, the San Francisco’s district attorney’s office announced Monday.
Michael Anthony, a security guard working for Walgreens, reportedly killed 24-year-old Banko Brown while trying to stop Brown from stealing. Though Brown’s lawyers told HuffPost that Anthony was the aggressor, the district attorney said in a report released Monday that the security guard acted in self-defense.
According to the report, Anthony pinned Brown down after Brown became combative and “repeatedly” threatened to stab Anthony. Brown reportedly lunged at Anthony, who shot and killed Brown. When the police recovered Brown’s bag, they found items from Walgreens but no knife.
According to the report, Anthony told police that after he let Brown go, he thought, “Please don’t do nothing stupid.” When Brown lunged toward Anthony, Anthony felt “it was me or [him]” because Brown had threatened to stab him.
“After careful review of all of the evidence gathered by the San Francisco Police Department and my office in this case, we will not be pursuing murder charges in connection to the shooting of Banko Brown,” District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement. “After the case’s initial discharge on May 1, 2023, we sought additional evidence to refute the suspect’s claims of reasonable self-defense and to date have not found any evidence that did so. Without evidence to refute the suspect’s reasonable self-defense claim in court, we can not ethically meet our burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury that a crime was committed.”