When more than 20 total strangers report virtually the exact same thing, you can be nearly certain that's what happened.
Jeff, Do you have access to the Chronicle archives? If so, would you mind finding yesterday's story about this? It was much more damning.
Many people have different priorities in life than you, apparently. Sad, sad situation. Jeff, prayers for your friend and his family. Hopefully some good - public awareness, revised security proceedures, something - can come from this.
Ditto that. Lost in this discussion has been that...your friend and his family will definitely will be in my thoughts.
This kind of "response" to theft is probably why people shoplift. They think that the employees won't even do anything. Sit around? Write the license and call the cops?? C'mon. Thats nonsense. If someone steals from your store, or where you work you should go after him and try to stop him. I was at Blockbuster the other day and these punk kids came in and were stealing videogames, the manager told them to stop and they responded with the birdie and just walked out of the store. I asked him if he wanted me to go grab them and hold them and he said his company didn't allow him to confront or attempt to detain shoplifters. If this pretty large guy ran away and fought security, then he put himself in that predicament even if the security people went overboard. If I was trying to take someone down and he fought back I would make sure that he's subdued and not getting another hit on me and i'm not as concerned with his safety or comfort.
Isn't it odd, you cannot deter robbery and its divisons like mugging and burglery with guns because it is murder if they die. I always figured if someone is beating you up for your wallet, they are entitled to being shot.
This is very simple: Texas law states employees and security personnel can use REASONABLE FORCE to subdue shoplifters and reclaim merchandise. This, from eyewitness accounts, was NOT reasonable force. He and eyewitnesses evidently pleaded to let him up due to being burned by the pavement, the rug was declined, and the knee to the back and one to the neck AFTER handcuffs had been applied caused him to suffocate. Yeah, the guy was wrong for committing a crime (IF he did), and he may have been wrong to run, but there was NOTHING reasonable about how the staff handled this. It sounds to me like a bunch of damn Wyatt Erp wannabes running that place, trying to feel powerful and trying to be heroes. Maybe this will end up setting the right precedent after all is said and done.
As stated below, this kind of response is standard practice. And somehow Blockbuster stays in business. The vast vast vast majority of people do not shoplift. It's not worth risking what happened this week to stop those punks. Nor is it worth it when an employee goes out and one of those punks has a gun and shoots the employee. I was at Best Buy the other day and they had a kid in their office waiting for a cop because he was busted stealing CDs. They noticed him before he got out of the store and detained him then. Read the eyewitness accounts. This person could not breathe and was face down on the scalding pavement for an obscene amount of time. If he was struggling, it was because he was dying.
I worked at Best Buy during college, and the policy was; If they leave the store, then stop pursuing. If they have gotten out to the parking lot, stop pursuing because of insurance liability matters... I remember one time I caught this guy stealing dvd's by cutting the packaging open w/ a knife and jacking the disc itself. I wanted to tackle him, but he disappeared before any of us could...
In Texas, can you shoot and kill someone breaking into your house even if you are not physically threatened?
Sure, then you have an employee that gets the snot beaten out of them or killed and now you have that family's lawyers on your case. It's not that easy and definitely not that simple a matter. Just because it's a petty crime doesn't mean they're not carrying guns, knives, or have buddies outside waiting.
I know a few people in retail loss prevention and one of the things they are told to do is stop shoplifters only when they exit the store...to prove that the suspect had no intent to pay for the items they have...preferably the immediate outside of the first exit doors, say within 5 feet, if the shoplifter gets to the parking lot, do not detain just get license plate, of course I've heard my share of parking lot chases...stopping them insid4
We should be clear on a few things: The fact that he only had a few small items is irrelevant. What he stole is irrelevant. Where to do you draw the line? If he had stolen a color Tv, would he have deserved to die? How about a diamond ring? How much is his life worth (maybe his newborn child could answer this, if he/she was old enough to speak). The fact that he pleaded that he couldn't breathe is irrelevant. Like I said, every suspect that you ever see on Cops ALWAYS complains when they get pinned. Authorities CANNOT let up on a suspect just because he's uncomfortable while he's being subdued. Now, please don't misunderstand the above statments. That doesn't make it okay for authorities to kill someone or use excessive force. If they had used REASONABLE force, his life probably would not have been in danger. When police pin a man, they get him cuffed and then at least let him turn his head to breathe. Frequently, the suspect is then taken to a secure location (like the back of a police car). It sounds as if the security guards did NOT do that at all, and just left him face-down to suffocate. Checkout these quotes: link link
I'm not really sure anyone's posted anything to disagree with anything you just said droxford. Except that they probably shouldn't have chased after the guy once he was outside the store in the first place. And the part where you said it was irrelevant that he said he couldn't breathe. Was it irrelevant when he said the ground was hot? You could help someone breathe and not let them out of your grip. He could've stolen the most expensive thing in the store and he still shouldn't die.
My niece was actually there, and witnessed the incident. It was right by her car. The man was face down on the hot pavement. My niece asked security if the guy was ok. They told her he was fine. My niece then got a piece of cloth from her car and asked security if they wanted to put that under the man. Security again said he was fine. Other witnesses offered to give the shoplifter water, but were told he was fine. Finally someone pointed out that he had stopped moving and that his fingernails were extremely white. Security lifted up his head, and his face was blue and when cops and parametics arrived the could not be revived. My niece said that he was struggling not so much to get away from the security but because the man was suffocating. She went in and told the store that they should have better trained security and told them what happened. They told her to call Wal Mart HQ. The police took her statement but told her there wasn't much that could be done about it. When the news report on television didn't report the story as it happened she called them to set the story straight. They took her statement and wanted to do an interview. My niece was leary about appearing on television and has no desire to so. She called my brother up, hardly able to speak from seeing what had happened to the man. She was extremely upset. It is a real tragedy. It is too bad that the security didn't at least allow the man a chance to life his head up. They idiots and perhaps criminally at fault here. According to my neice they did not try CPR on him before the parametics arrived.
These men were not "authorities." They were clearly not peace officers because any rookie peace officer would KNOW that you never leave a suspect face down with his hands cuffed behind his back because he will not be able to breathe. It's not a matter of turning your head, your chest cannot support your weight and expand with your hands behind your back and someone standing/sitting on you. This is a sad case of toy cops playing like they were real cops. Whoops, turns out real cops actually get TRAINED.
