California Attorney General Rob Bonta has agreed to review San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins’ decision to not press charges in a fatal shooting at a Walgreens store that sparked public outcry.
Bonta’s office confirmed Wednesday that it would determine if Jenkins acted in an “abuse of discretion” when reviewing the killing of Banko Brown, who was shot by a private security guard after allegedly shoplifting in April.
Jenkins announced in early May that her office would not be pressing charges against Walgreens security guard Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony in the shooting, citing self-defense.
John Burris, an Oakland civil rights attorney hired by Brown’s family, said he’s planning to file a state lawsuit on Friday against Walgreens, Anthony, and the security company who hired Anthony.
The best outcome of Bonta’s inquiry would be filed charges for manslaughter or murder, Burris said. He said there hasn’t been a history of the attorney general doing that in the past, but “this is the one case where it should happen.”
“This young man was unarmed, backing away, and the officer was in a position of safety. He was the aggressive one, he had the weapon,” Burris said. “There’s no justification for him not being charged.”
Bonta’s announcement coincided with San Francisco supervisors passing a resolution on Tuesday that urged state and federal officials to look into the district attorney’s decision.
Supervisors previously attempted to hold Jenkins accountable for her actions in the case — like Supervisor Shamann Walton requesting for Jenkins to release the surveillance video of the shooting. Supervisor Dean Preston also drafted legislation to ban security guards from carrying firearms.
Jenkins initially shot down Walton’s letter of inquiry for publicly releasing the video footage, stating that doing so would “compromise” the case, until she did so a few days later after police reportedly gathered additional evidence.
Bonta previously looked into Jenkins’ actions in February, when he reviewed her decision to drop charges against a former police officer in the fatal shooting of Keita O’Neil. Bonta said last week he would not take over the case.
At the very least we should chop off one hand for thievery. If they steal again chop off the other one. I pretty sure this would help reduce crime.
Friend forgot her purse hanging on her chair at a restaurant in Egypt. 20 minutes later she went back and found the purse right where she left it. The restaurant manager said we don’t steal because the hands would be cut off. She felt safer there than in San Francisco.
I would let this one pass. There is an emotional thing in this one for the guard. It was all in all a bad situation.
If he wasn’t a thief, he would be alive.
Democrats made it ok to steal. Press charges on the lawmakers.
People need to stop breaking the law and forcing others to react.