Sunday, October 6, 2024

Multipedia Post: Walgreens Security Guard Kills

Since 2009, I have shared multimedia teaching content at the Crimprof Multipedia; going forward, when I post new content there, I’ll try and also make a note of it here.  I will not, however, make an entire duplicate library of the multimedia content.  So, if you are interested in a particular post, you can go and grab it there.

https://crimprof.com/criminal-law/defenses/walgreens-security-guard-kills/

Category

Defenses, Pretrial

Tags

charging decision, common law, deadly force, defense of property, defenses, discretion, firearms, homicide, justification of law enforcement, murder, non-homicide crime, pretrial, prosecution role, self-defense, theft

Post

In April of 2023, amidst strong disagreement over how to handle retail theft in California, 33-year-old private security guard Michael Anthony was on shift at a Walgreens in San Francisco when he saw someone slip an item into a bag. A confrontation ensued, witnessed by bystanders and captured on CCTV, resulting in Anthony shooting (a single time) and killing 24-year-old Banko Brown. Here’s the video:

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Anthony easily satisfies the requirements of some form of criminal homicide, including murder—for example, intending to cause serious bodily injury, he caused the death of another human being. And of course defense of property never permits deadly force. So, it is a case for addressing the defense of law enforcement and self-defense.

As for law enforcement, the common law was of course generous and applied to us all, so the issues include whether and how California has narrowed that doctrine and whether it was reasonable to believe this deadly force necessary to arrest a felon. Petty retail theft would not begin as a felony, but did this become a robbery? If you teach like me, you won’t be as concerned with precisely how California has modified the doctrine, but rather with working through the types of changes commonly made by various states.

As for self-defense, could guard Anthony reasonably fear imminent serious bodily injury or death at the time he shoots? He claims Brown had repeatedly threatened to stab him, and that he thought “I was going to be stabbed.” Bystanders did not hear those threats, and police found no knife.

Beyond the substantive criminal law, it is a case for discussing prosecutorial discretion, with all the questions that naturally raises: Why do we permit prosecutors to make these choices? Is there a realistic better alternative? In this case, the prosecutor both released a written report and sat down for an interview regarding her charging decision:

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As of September 2024, no charges were filed and none were planned.

Another interesting topic might be the different bystander reactions, including a seeming lack thereof. What might these say about things?

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/crimprof_blog/2024/10/multipedia-post-walgreens-security-guard-kills.html

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