Shocking video shows shoplifting suspect pulling gun on police officer – CBS News
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A video from an Ohio Walmart shows a shoplifting suspect pulling a gun on officers while being questioned in a security room. CBS News’ Adriana Diaz reports.
Kristin Cavallari started young… and she never looked back!
The latest episode of the MTV alum’s podcast Let’s Be Honest is a doozy, y’all. Of course, Kristin has never been shy when sharing things about her life on the pod. But this week, in releasing her back-to-school episode, she decided to go back in the day and tell her listeners all about how crazy she was as a teenager. (And way before her teen years, too!)
So, the ep is appropriately titled “My Career In Being The World’s Biggest Troublemaker.” That title is perfect, ’cause KCav opened up about how her mean streak started in the FOURTH GRADE!!!
She recalled how that year in elementary school, a diary she’d been writing in was confiscated by a teacher. The problem? Well, the Laguna Beach alum had written a bad word in it, as she explained:
“In fourth grade I had a diary and for whatever reason I took my diary to school one day. And you know, at home I had written in it whatever I said. I wrote the word ‘f**k.’”
She went on to note that (a) teachers shouldn’t read students’ diaries, but also (b) she got dinged by the school regardless:
“My teacher took my diary at some point and read my f**king diary. I’m sorry, that should not be allowed. I don’t care if my diary is on school property, you shouldn’t be allowed to just take my diary and read it. But she saw that I wrote the word ‘f**k,’ and I got in trouble for that.”
Okay, first off, we get what she’s saying about diaries being private. But also, what fourth grader is just dropping f-bombs left and right?!
Yeesh!
But that was only the start of the chaos. Jay Cutler‘s ex-wife called eighth grade the true “turning point” in her life. That was when she started doing really wild stuff, like faking illnesses to call out of school, taking trains without adults or telling her parents where she went, drinking alcohol at school (!), and even piercing her bellybutton with a safety pin (!!!). Girl…
And then came the shoplifting. By tenth grade, Kristin was pilfering stuff from stores. Not because she needed it! She grew up plenty comfortable in the ritzy beachside locale of Laguna Beach, California. No, she stole just to feel the rush of sneaking and swiping. She explained:
“It was like my sophomore year, you know, shoplifting. In high school, I didn’t need the money. It was for the adrenaline rush and to see what I could get away with. You know, kids do that s**t.”
That they do…
It all came to a head one day when Kristin and some highs school pals went into a store and started swiping stuff — just like always. For whatever reason, Kristin opted to layer stolen items onto herself before walking out instead of stuffing it in her purse. Bad call! The store owner called the cops, officers showed up, and the girls all got busted.
Kristin explained how she lied to the officers’ faces when asked if she had tried to steal anything:
“So the cops came and they obviously found all of the clothes and everything else in my friends’ purses. And I am going, ‘I didn’t steal anything, this is bull s**t, like, I shouldn’t be getting in trouble.’ And the cops really believed me. I mean, I had them going. I was a great liar in high school.”
Yeah, they believed her… for a little while! The girls were taken to the police station, and everybody got patted down. When cops got to Kristin, well, you can probably already guess how this story ends:
“So, I had everyone going and everyone believing me. And then I got the old pat-down, and what do you know? They found all of my articles of clothing. And the cops were so mad at me for lying, as they should have been.”
For that, Kristin said she paid the biggest price out of all her pals: the rest of the girls were given about 20 hours of community service to complete while KCav landed 100! But you know what they say: don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.
That wasn’t the only run-in Kristin had with the Laguna Beach PD back then, either. She recalled how she and then-boyfriend Stephen Colletti were having an argument on the side of the road one time when cops showed up, split up the couple, and took Kristin — who was still underage — back to her parents’ house. That must have been a fun conversation with mom and dad…
ALBANY, New York — Gov. Kathy Hochul’s war on shoplifting is starting to show results — just as President Donald Trump is using the weight of the federal government to crack down on urban crime in blue states.
Hochul today will announce her efforts to combat retail theft — bolstered penalties and more money for cops and prosecutors — have paid dividends. Retail theft dropped 12 percent in New York City between January and August compared to the same period a year ago. Shoplifting incidents declined by 5 percent elsewhere in the state over those months, her office said.
Democrats across the country last year pushed to address shoplifting, a tangible concern for voters anytime they tried to purchase locked-away toiletries or watched viral social media videos of swarming thieves robbing luxury retailers.
Retail theft spiked nationally following the onset of the pandemic, and incidents in New York are still above pre-Covid levels. But as Republicans continue to tie Democrats to crime and voters consistently raise concerns over public safety, Hochul has stressed the statistics show her efforts to fight crime are working.
“Protecting business owners and retail workers is crucial to maintaining safety and security in New York. Since enacting protections to crack down on retail theft, we’ve seen a significant reduction in crime,” Hochul said in a statement. “And while it’s clear our investments are making an impact, the work is not done yet.”
Public safety concerns were wielded against Hochul in 2022, when she ran for her first full term. Republicans focused almost exclusively on crime in their campaigns, and GOP gubernatorial nominee Lee Zeldin came within 6 points of winning — an unusually tight margin in a deep blue state. Alleviating voter concerns over crime next year will be an imperative for New York Democrats, as the party is also fighting to retain several first-term House members.
The governor in recent days has touted a drop in shootings and a record-safe month on the city’s mass transit system. A decrease in crime comes at a politically crucial moment for Hochul, who runs for reelection next year.
Trump on Monday signed an executive order meant to eliminate so-called “cashless bail” laws around the country — a move that goes to the heart of a package of left-leaning criminal justice measures signed into law six years ago by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Hochul has pressed to limit the scope of the bail law to include more criminal offenses and give judges more discretion. That has not stopped her Republican foes from pressing the issue. Rep. Elise Stefanik, who is mulling a run for governor next year, cheered Trump’s executive order.
“For too long, New Yorkers have suffered violent crimes and even lost their lives due to Kathy Hochul and single party Democrat rule’s dangerous anti-police, pro-criminal policies,” Stefanik said. “New Yorkers want law and order and tough on crime policies to bring safety back to our great state.”
The president, meanwhile, has not ruled out deploying the National Guard to Chicago and New York City amid a federalized interagency push to address street crime in Washington.
“We go in, we will solve Chicago within one week, maybe less,” Trump said Monday. “But within one week we’ll have no crime in Chicago, like no crime in D.C.”
A teenage boy was arrested Saturday in a northeastern Twin Cities suburb after shoplifting and fleeing law enforcement in a stolen vehicle, authorities said.
The 17-year-old took about $70 worth of items from a Walmart in Vadnais Heights, Minnesota, the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office said. Deputies responded, but he drove away before they could make an arrest.
Deputies chased him on County Road E East until he crashed near English Street. After the crash, a pursuing deputy rammed the teen’s car “to make it more difficult for the suspect to keep trying to evade arrest,” the sheriff’s office said.
Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office
The boy then climbed out of the passenger’s side, ran from the car and was arrested nearby.
The sheriff’s office did not say if the boy was injured in the crash.
A Rite Aid store in Compton, California, is taking a dramatic step to combat shoplifting by placing nearly all its items behind locked cases, including paper goods and potato chips. Elise Preston has more.
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ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. — The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office is looking for suspects in connection with a robbery and attempted homicide at a 7-Eleven store early Saturday morning.
The sheriff’s office said two men were shoplifting from the convenience store at 1120 S. Parker Road around 6 a.m. when a clerk confronted them.
The two suspects — described as being in their late teens or early 20s — ran outside as the clerk followed.
At this point, the sheriff’s office said one of the suspects took out a handgun and shot at the pursuing clerk, missing him.
The two suspects jumped into a waiting grey Nissan SUV and fled northbound on S. Parker Road. No arrests have been made.
The sheriff’s office is investigating the incident as an aggravated robbery and attempted homicide.
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TJ Maxx shoppers may now encounter security workers outfitted with police-type body cameras at some of the retailer’s stores.
TJX, which operates TJ Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods, said it made the move late last year as part of an effort to curb shoplifting, with executives disclosing the initiative during an earnings call late last month.
When somebody walks in, “It’s almost like a de-escalation where people are less likely to do something when they’re being videotaped,” Chief Financial Officer John Klinger told Wall Street analysts.
TJX, which operates more than 4,900 stores across nine countries, isn’t the only retailer turning to cameras to deter theft. More than a third of retailers said they were researching body-worn cameras for workers, according to a 2023 survey by the National Retail Federation survey, with 11% saying they were piloting or testing the technology.
What retailers call “shrink” or shrinkage, including theft, amounted to more than $112 billion in industry losses in 2022, representing 1.6% of total retail sales and up from 1.4%, or roughly $94 billion in losses the previous year, according to the NRF. Shrinkage also encompasses losses related to merchandise that isn’t scanned properly, vendor fraud and fraudulent product returns.
Giant Food supermarkets recently banned large bags in some of its stores experiencing high shrink, while others are investing in AI-driven surveillance and like technologies.
The NRF also points to the problem of what it calls “organized retail crime,” or large-scale, coordinated thefts at stores involving multiple people. In the aftermath of the pandemic, a number of retailers reported a surge in retail crime. Target last year said it was closing nine stores in four states because mounting thefts and organized retail crime threatened the safety of workers and customers.
Yet measuring the scale of the problem is difficult, with legal advocates noting that even more reliable crime data is inadequate. And while some cities did, in fact, see a jump in shoplifting following the pandemic, other metros saw a decline, according to the Council on Criminal Justice.
A November study by the non-partisan think tank found that, excluding New York City, the number of shoplifting incidents in 24 U.S. metros fell roughly 7% in the first six months of 2023 compared with the first half of 2019.
Over that four-year period, New York saw the largest spike in reported shoplifting, with a 64% increase, followed by Los Angeles (61%). By contrast, some cities saw a steep decline, with such incidents falling 78% and 65% in St. Petersburg, Fla., and St. Paul, Minn., respectively, the group found.
The myth of an epidemic of organized retail theft — depicted in viral videos of brazen shoplifters, indifferent security guards and smash-and-grab retail gangs — has largely been debunked by researchers. Yet it remains irresistible to Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell…
Gov. Gavin Newsom has gone viral for shoplifting at Target. Well, sort of.
The governor didn’t actually steal anything. But as he tells it, he did witness someone blatantly walking out of a Sacramento-area store with an armload of stolen stuff, presumably right in front of his own intimidating-looking security detail. And when Newsom asked why no one was taking action, the clerk told him it was the governor’s fault.
Newsom has made it too easy to steal, he said the clerk told him — before realizing who he was and freaking out.
Newsom, who was Christmas shopping with one of his children at the time, said he was outraged. It’s just not true, he said he told the clerk. California has the tenth-toughest laws against retail theft in the nation, he lectured — in a way that must have seemed super weird until she deduced his identity.
“I said: ‘Why didn’t you stop him?’ ” Newsom said he asked the clerk.
“She goes, ’Oh, the governor’ ” — he broke off — “swear to God, true story, on my mom’s grave.” He added that the clerk had the temerity to tell him: “The governor lowered the threshold, there’s no accountability. … We don’t stop them because of the governor.”
Newsom told the story this week to a group of mayors from around the state who had gathered on Zoom for a news conference on his mental health initiative, Proposition 1. He and the mayors were chatting among themselves while waiting for San Francisco’s London Breed and San Diego’s Todd Gloria to log on. After relating the anecdote, the governor added that he hoped the two mayors weren’t the only ones not yet signed into the Zoom. “Hopefully, all the reporters weren’t on,” he said.
Too late. The exchange, posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) and then picked up by television and print outlets around the state, quickly went viral — catnip in the heated debate about retail theft and Proposition 47, which reduced some thefts and drug offenses to misdemeanors to reduce mass incarceration. Some critics have blamed Proposition 47 for the rise in thefts.
Newsom himself came out last month calling for legislation to crack down on “professional thieves” without amending Proposition 47, noting that one of the wine stores he owns in San Francisco was robbed at least three times in 2021. He pointed out that Texas’ threshold for felony theft is among those that is higher than California’s.
But those points did little to calm the viral story. The chairwoman of the state Republican Party, Jessica Millan Patterson, quickly jumped into the fray, writing on X: “Shout-out to this store clerk for saying to the governor’s face what every Californian has wanted to say: that he and his radical @CA_Dem buddies are to blame for CA’s surging crime. Sadly, Newsom still didn’t seem to take the hint.”
Newsom’s office declined to identify which Target the encounter occurred at, to keep the media from mobbing the store. They did say the encounter took place in the Sacramento area, around Christmastime, while the governor was shopping with one of his children.
The exchange, the governor said, ended with an attempt at a photo-op.
As the governor was explaining how strict California’s retail theft laws actually are, the clerk, he said, “looks at me, twice. She freaks out. She calls everyone over, wants to take photos.”
“I said, no, I’m not taking a photo,” Newsom said. “We’re having a conversation. Where’s your manager? How are you blaming the governor?”
He added: “Why am I spending $380? Everyone can walk the hell right out.”
There are a lot of people out there who are not big fans of the self-checkout, especially some older folks. Often you’ll see them standing in line for a real clerk rather than use open machines. But if they were looking for a way to get rid of them, the denizens of San Fran are doing their job for them.
Certain Safeway and Target locations closed their self-checkout kiosks to customers, while shoppers have been scanning their own purchases for years at the two chains.
This summer, the Safeway on Webster Street and multiple others installed security gates at self-checkout kiosks to deter shoplifting in which a receipt is scanned before exiting the store. That same location has now removed its self-checkout lanes entirely. Workers told SFGate the self-checkout kiosks were removed a few months ago.
The Target on Mission and 4th streets also disabled its self-checkout kiosks, and employees told CBS News the removal of the pay system was due to shoplifting. Target closed three stores in the Bay Area in October, citing “theft and organized retail crime” that threatened “the safety of our team and guests, and contributing to unsustainable business performance.”
“Shoplifting has been a hot-button topic in the city for years, and the San Francisco Police Department has ramped up efforts recently, launching undercover operations to arrest retail thieves, dubbed ‘Blitz ’23.” the story noted. “Police arrested 17 shoplifting suspects in one week focused on a store in the 700 block of Mission Street, a retail hot spot known for many shoplifting incidents, as part of the enforcement operation.”
Now that’s not to say that the city can’t do anything about the rampant crime. We found that out when it took just a matter of hours for them to clean up the entire cesspool for a visit from the Chinese president.
San Francisco’s NBC News affiliate reported in April, “They basically opened the gates to theft,” said (former law enforcement officer Mike Leninger). “And you are seeing that in stores that are closing, chains that are lowering the number of stores under the guise of financial constraints or reasons.”
“For the state of California, for licensed security guards, they are mandated to observe and report only. They’re not to take physical action,” he said.
If this sounds crazy to you, that’s because it is.
And they wonder why so many people are leaving California.
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A national trade group representing retailers incorrectly attributed half of all industry losses two years ago to organized shoplifting, raising questions about how much merchandise thefts are weighing on retail chains’ financial results.
In a report on what it calls “organized retail crime,” the National Retail Federation (NRF) initially said theft results in $45 billion in annual losses for retailers, roughly half of the industry’s total of $94.5 billion in missing merchandise in 2021. But the lobbying group has since retracted the figure, saying the report from the group relied on an inaccurate figure from Ben Dugan, president of the National Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail.
The statement that half of all missing merchandise, known in the retail industry as “shrink,” was attributable to crime was “a mistaken inference,” the NRF said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch. It was based on a statement Dugan made in 2021 Senate testimony, the group added. It has since amended the report to make clear that Dugan was citing 2016 statistics representing total retail shrink — not the share attributable to organized theft.
Shrink also encompasses losses related to merchandise that isn’t scanned properly, vendor fraud and fraudulent product returns. Organized retail crime refers to rings of criminals acting together to steal a range of goods from stores that can be sold.
Although the financial losses blamed on retail crime in 2021 were overstated, the NRF said retail crime poses a significant threat to stores.
“We stand behind the widely understood fact that organized retail crime is a serious problem impacting retailers of all sizes and communities across our nation,” the NRF said in a statement. “At the same time, we recognize the challenges the retail industry and law enforcement have with gathering and analyzing an accurate and agreed-upon set of data to measure the number of incidents in communities across the country. The reality is retailers and law enforcement agencies continue to experience daily incidents of theft, partner in large-scale investigations and report recoveries of stolen retail goods into the millions of dollars.”
In an October note to investors, analysts with investment bank William Blair suggested that some retailers are exaggerating the impact of theft to disguise their poor business performance.
“While theft is likely elevated, companies are also likely using the opportunity to draw attention away from margin headwinds in the form of higher promotions and weaker inventory management in recent quarters,” they wrote. “We also believe some more recent permanent store closures enacted under the cover of shrink relate to underperformance of these locations.”
Retail analyst Neil Saunders said the problem is hard to quantify, particularly when retailers are cagey with numbers.
“Crime is an issue — I don’t think that should be denied,” he told CBS MoneyWatch. “The problem is there’s a lot of talk about it as an issue, but very little quantification of how much an issue it is.”
A recent analysis from the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice found that reports of shoplifting in two dozen cities rose 16% between 2019 and the first half of 2023. When theft data from New York City was excluded, however, the number of incidents across the other cities fell 7% over that period.
Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News streaming to discuss her reporting.
Warsaw witnessed a theft straight out of a heist movie when a 22-year-old man stood motionless in a shop window and convincingly posed as a mannequin. Polish police have now charged the suspect, ensuring this innovative criminal won’t be blending into the backdrop anytime soon.
Man Posed as Mannequin in Broad Daylight
The audacious individual positioned himself amongst other display dummies, a bag in hand, in a store in the central Warsaw district of Śródmieście. Both staff and shoppers alike were completely fooled by his act. He didn’t move an inch, hoping to be mistaken for one of the display mannequins. It’s an act many might find challenging, but this man had apparently mastered the art of staying perfectly still.
His scheme wasn’t just about standing around, however. Once he felt he’d established his cover, he ventured deeper into the store, targeting the jewelry department. There, under the guise of after-hours shadows and amid the lifeless mannequins, he helped himself to various pieces of jewelry.
A Series of Shopping Centre Stunts
But the Warsaw shop window incident wasn’t this suspect’s first venture into crime. Polish police have linked him to a series of other incidents at shopping centers. On one occasion, after closing hours, he purportedly indulged himself at a shopping center bar, relishing whatever food was left out.
His appetite wasn’t limited to just food. He also visited a designer clothes shop, not for a casual shopping spree, but rather a sly swap. The suspect allegedly exchanged his attire for fresh clothes right off the racks. This particular incident gave away a crucial clue – he was caught on CCTV slipping through a minuscule gap under the store’s shutters, revealing both his audacity and agility.
Yet another event tied to him involves a more direct approach to theft. He is believed to have stealthily waited for a store to shut down for the day, after which he took cash from several registers. Apart from cash, he reportedly tried to pilfer other items from the store.
Dollar General slashed its sales and profit outlook for the year on Thursday, blaming headwinds including weaker consumer spending on non-essential purchases and increasing theft.
Dollar General shares tumbled nearly 17% in pre-market trading Thursday.
The discount store’s challenges are yet another sign of American consumers pulling back on shopping as inflation remains well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
“One of the key reasons for this is because Dollar General’s core customers are feeling the acute pressure of the cost-of-living-crisis,” Neil Saunders, retail analyst and managing director at GlobalData, said in a report Thursday.
“This has been exacerbated by cuts in SNAP payments as temporary pandemic benefits came to an end. As a result, lower-income shoppers are cutting back on non-consumable and indulgent purchases from the chain in a bid to save money,” he said. “Unfortunately, this dynamic will not change any time soon as, if anything, finances will tighten over the second half of the year.”
The discount retailer now expects sales for the full year to rise between 1.3% to 3.3%, down from its previous forecast of a 3.5% to 5% increase. It expects full-year earnings to decline 22% to 34% from its previous estimate of a flat-to-8% decrease.
The retailer said its same-store sales (or sales at stores open at least a year) are expected to range from a decline of about 1% to an increase of 1% for the year, compared to its previous expectation of a 1% to 2%. increase.
For its second quarter, Dollar General logged a 1% drop in its same-store sales. It said weaker customer traffic to its stores hurt sales in the period, combined with budget-conscious shoppers pulling back on higher-priced discretionary purchases such as home items and clothing in favor of lower-priced everyday necessities.
In addition, food stamp recipients started to receive about $90 a month less in benefits, on average, starting in March, as a pandemic hunger relief program comes to an end nationwide three years after Congress approved it.
Meanwhile, close on the heels of Dick’s Sporting Goods sounding the alarm on store theft eating into its profit this year, Dollar General also flagged an increase in product theft, among other factors, hurting its profit.
The company said “an increase in expected inventory shrink for the second half of 2023” factored into its lower guidance. Shrink is an industry term encompassing inventory losses caused by external theft, including organized retail crime, employee theft, human errors, vendor fraud, damaged or mismarked items and other losses.
Retailers large and small say they are struggling to contain an escalation in store crimes — from petty shoplifting to organized sprees of large-scale theft that clear entire shelves of products. Target warned earlier this year that it was bracing to lose half a billion dollars because of rising theft. It reported a large number of incidents of shoplifting and organized retail crime in its stores nationwide.
At the same time, it’s not clear that store crime is growing significantly more serious. Within the industry, at least one major player has argued that the problem is being overhyped.
It is estimated that tens of billions of dollars’ worth of merchandise is lost to shoplifters each year. And as shoplifters (working individually or as part of organized retail crime gangs) become more brazen, store owners are looking for new ways to stop them. Correspondent Rita Braver visits the Loss Prevention Research Council, which is testing new ways for retailers to protect their goods from being pilfered. (This story was originally broadcast April 16, 2023.)
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The San Francisco district attorney is facing criticism after declining to file criminal charges against a Walgreens security guard who fatally shot a suspected shoplifter last month, saying the evidence showed the guard acted in self-defense. Jonathan Vigliotti has more.
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Target is witnessing a rise in “violent” incidents at its stores that is costing the retailer hundreds of millions each year, CEO Brian Cornell said on Wednesday.
The retailer isn’t alone in experiencing an increase in thefts and other problems, Cornell said on a conference call to discuss Target’s most recent quarterly earnings. “[T]heft and organized retail crime are increasingly urgent issues, impacting the team and our guests and other retailers,” he noted.
Shoppers are sometimes “in harm’s way,” he added.
The rise in theft and other incidents at Target locations comes as other stores are also struggling to cope with similar issues. Whole Foods last month temporarily closed one of its flagship stores in San Francisco, citing concerns that crime in the area is endangering its staff. During the pandemic, a rise in so-called smash-and-grab retail robberies impacted retailers across the U.S., with organized theft rings targeting major chains.
“The unfortunate fact is violent incidents are increasing at our stores and across the entire retail industry. And when products are stolen, simply put, they are no longer available for our guests who depend on them,” Cornell said.
While he didn’t single out any particular store or region that was impacted more heavily, Cornell noted that higher theft rates is “putting significant pressure on our financial results.” He forecast that theft would reduce Target’s profitability by more than $500 million this year when compared with the prior year.
“Epidemic” of shoplifting
Still, some analysts expressed skepticism over whether retail theft, also known as “shrink” by the industry, is as big of an issue as Cornell portrayed it. Consumers, they say, are paring back spending amid economic headwinds and Target may be struggling with its own issues.
“The company called out shrink as eroding profitability; while we accept theft is a growing issue, we also wonder how much of this is down to poor inventory control by Target,” noted Neil Saunders, an analyst at GlobalData, said in a Wednesday research note.
Saunders added that consumers are cutting back on spending outside of groceries, and trading down to cheaper options because they are “less willing and able to spend.”
As for the thefts, Cornell said Target is moving forward with “mitigation efforts,” including fixtures that protect its goods and changing its merchandise selection.
“Retailers are dealing with epidemic levels of shoplifting,” David Johnston, vice president of asset protection and retail operations for the National Retail Federation, told CBS News recently. “Someone who sweeps a shelf of Tide detergent … that’s not for personal consumption. They are being used as a mechanism of a larger criminal enterprise.”
The security guard who shot and killed a suspected shoplifter at a Walgreens in downtown San Francisco last month will not face criminal charges, the district attorney’s office announced Monday, saying the shooter acted in self-defense.
The district attorney’s office under Brooke Jenkins released surveillance video and a written report Monday regarding Michael Anthony’s fatal shooting of Banko Brown on April 27.
According to the report, the guard said Brown had repeatedly threatened to stab him prior to the shooting. Police did not find a knife in Brown’s possession, the report states, but prosecutors still determined his fear was reasonable.
“Given the totality of the circumstances, including the threat that Anthony believed, and could reasonably believe, the evidence shows that Brown’s shooting was not a criminal act because Anthony acted in lawful self-defense,” the report states. “Thus, Anthony is not criminally liable for the death of Brown.”
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors last week sent a letter asking District Attorney Brooke Jenkins to release the surveillance video showing the shooting after no charges were brought against the guard during the 72 hours he was in custody.
The surveillance camera video released Monday shows Brown attempting to leave the store before being stopped by the security guard, identified by police as Anthony. Brown then shoves the guard, leading to a physical altercation.
Brown is held on the ground by the guard but released after about a minute, the video shows. Brown starts to leave but appears to turn around and move toward the guard, who then shoots him, the video shows.
San Francisco has seen a marked exodus of middle class residents since the Covid-19 pandemic, and a series of brazen property crimes and rampant public drug use has created a sense of disorder, as CNN explored in the recent special, “What happened to San Francisco?”
One such incident was a daytime theft at a Walgreens store in 2021 captured on video in which a suspect casually grabbed items from shelves, tossed them into a black bag and left the store, brushing past the store’s security guard and several onlookers. Walgreens said at the time this “blatant retail theft” was an ongoing problem at its stores, although a company executive said earlier this year “maybe we cried too much” about the issue.
As part of the backlash, the progressive prosecutor Chesa Boudin was recalled by a 55% vote last year. Jenkins was appointed to replace him and pledged to “restore accountability and consequences to our criminal justice system,” saying this was a moment to “take back our streets.”
In his videotaped interview with police, the guard said Brown repeatedly threatened to stab him during the fight.
“I felt like I was in danger. I felt like I was going to be stabbed,” Anthony said.
According to the district attorney’s report, Brown was a transgender man. Anthony, using incorrect pronouns, further described his mental state the moment Brown moved toward him.
“And I didn’t know what she was planning on doing, but, uh … turns out her intention was to … try to spit at me and by that reaction by her turning around and advancing towards me … that’s when I lifted it (motions with hands) and then shot once.”
The district attorney’s report notes that self-defense applies when a person has a reasonable belief they are in imminent danger of being killed or suffering great bodily harm.
“There is no evidence to contradict that Anthony’s fear was honest,” the report states.
However, John Burris, an attorney representing Brown’s family, said he will move forward with filing a lawsuit in the case soon.
“I’ve seen the tape and looked it over pretty closely and I believe this shooting death was unjustified,” he told CNN.
“The family is very disturbed that no prosecution has taken place, particularly the father and the mother, and they would like the matter to be sent to the attorney general’s office for review.”
San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin said he is asking the state attorney general and the US Department of Justice to review the case. He told CNN affiliate KGO he was troubled by the video.
“There’s distance between them, Banko Brown is unarmed, Banko Brown is outside of the store,” he said.
Walgreens issued a statement offering its condolences to Brown’s family.
“The safety of our patients, customers and team members is our top priority, and violence of any kind will not be tolerated in our stores,” the company said. “We take this matter seriously and are cooperating with local authorities.”
Throughout the pandemic, major retailers have warned about surging theft and a rise in brazen shoplifting attempts. But a top Walgreens executive now says the freakout may have been overblown.
“Maybe we cried too much last year” about merchandise losses, Walgreens finance chief James Kehoe acknowledged Thursday on an earnings call. The company’s rate of shrink — merchandise losses due to theft, fraud, damages, mis-scanned items and other errors — fell from 3.5% of total sales last year to around 2.5% during its latest quarter.
Kehoe’s message is a notable shift from comments about theft from Walgreens and other retailers like Walmart and Target over the last nearly three years.
Companies and retail industry groups have tried to draw attention to shoplifting and “organized retail crime” rings smashing windows and grabbing aisles full of merchandise off shelves, urging lawmakers to crack down. Incidents have certainly happened: Many political leaders and local and national news outlets, including CNN, have picked up on viral incidents of smash-and-grab robberies.
Last January, Walgreens
(WBA) said its shrink was up by more 50% from the year prior. The company blamed part of that spike on organized retail crime and closed five locations in the San Francisco area in 2021, claiming theft as the reason for their closure.
“This is not petty theft,” Kehoe said last January. “These are gangs that actually go in and empty our stores of beauty products. And it’s a real issue.”
But a year later, Kehoe said Thursday that the company added too much extra security in stores.
“Probably we put in too much, and we might step back a little bit from that,” he said of security staffing. The company has found private security guards to be “largely ineffective” in deterring theft, so instead it’s putting in more police and law enforcement officers.
Though Walgreens may have overblown the shoplifting threat over the last few years, it’s true that theft has always been a problem for retailers — and that it often spikes during recessions and other periods of economic hardship, when people are desperate and may feel the need to turn to petty crime to sustain themselves. What’s more, recent factors like shortstaffed stores and self-checkout can make it easier for thieves to steal.
The National Retail Federation estimated that shrink cost retailers $94.5 billion in 2021, up from $61.7 billion in 2019 before the pandemic. Shoplifting often does not go reported to the police, but companies have said theft has worsened during the Covid crisis.
“Along with other retailers, we’ve seen a significant increase in theft and organized retail crime across our business,” Target
(TGT) CEO Brian Cornell said in November.
Walmart
(WMT) CEO Doug McMillon said last month on CNBC that “theft is an issue” and “higher than what it has historically been.” He warned stores could close if it continued.
However, it’s not clear the numbers add up.
For example, data released by the San Francisco Police Department does not support the explanation Walgreens gave that it was closing five stores because of organized retail theft, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2021.
One of the shuttered stores that closed had only seven reported shoplifting incidents in 2021 and a total of 23 since 2018, according to the newspaper. Overall, the five stores that closed had fewer than two recorded shoplifting incidents a month on average since 2018.
Similarly, a 2021 Los Angeles Times analysis of figures released by industry groups on losses due to organized retail crime found “there is reason to doubt the problem is anywhere near as large or widespread as they say.”
Most offender treatment goes on in the private sector—and more services are needed that target specific offender groups.
Press Release –
updated: Apr 25, 2018
MEMPHIS, Tenn., April 25, 2018 (Newswire.com)
– Few people are aware that America averages over 10 million arrests each year. The vast majority of arrests are for the offenses of driving without a license, shoplifting, and various other misdemeanors. Nearly all of these offenders are quickly processed and released and eventually assigned to a short probation term. Relatively few court jurisdictions have programs for such offenders, but most jurisdictions want specialized programs available for such offenders. Since the mid-1990s several large, private probation companies have aimed treatment programs at some specific offender groups, such as shoplifting offenders. However, their services are primarily offered in larger metropolitan areas leaving rural areas and towns without services that specifically treat specialized groups of low-level offenders. In recent years, private counselors and mental health providers have begun offering specialized counseling groups to offenders as part of an emerging trend that allows such services to be available even in small jurisdictions. It’s a trend that needs to increase and is a needed service in local communities.
Dr. Greg Little, author of “How to Establish and Build a Private Counseling Practice With Criminal Justice Clients” (2016), wrote, “In essence, the governmental side of criminal justice is so swamped with offenders that it can’t provide all that is needed. In brief, it became clear that the future of offender treatment was going to be specialized and something that could and would be done outside the governmental criminal justice system. Today, the majority of offender treatment probably goes on outside the criminal justice system. It is usually a contracted service and often court assigned. Most of these programs are funded by the offenders themselves. Nearly all of the ‘private’ providers offering such services use focused, cognitive behavioral workbooks designed for specific types of offenses. These programs are nearly always done in groups.”
In essence, the governmental side of criminal justice is so swamped with offenders that it can’t provide all that is needed. In brief, it became clear that the future of offender treatment was going to be specialized and something that could and would be done outside the governmental criminal justice system. Today, the majority of offender treatment probably goes on outside the criminal justice system.
Dr. Greg Little, Author
Little mentions shoplifting, underage drinking, driving without a license, and a host of other offense categories as being treatment areas that counselors and local mental health agencies should target. Services for Veterans are especially needed in rural areas. He adds, “By using evidence-based program materials, you can apply the very best treatment strategies to ensure that you are likely to reduce the chances that the offenders will re-offend. But it’s essential to first gain the trust and confidence of the local jurisdiction. You need to use what works.”
The first implementation of Little’s shoplifting program was in Nashville, Tennessee nearly a decade ago. “It was a huge implementation and has since been replicated at many sites,” Little stated. “It has been hugely successful. Counselors and local agencies should make efforts to serve the needs of their community by offering the key services that your local criminal justice simply can’t provide.” Such services should include programs for shoplifting offenders, those arrested for underage drinking, driving without a license, failure to provide child support, petty theft, anger management, trauma treatment, and services for Veterans.
