Updated 6:45 p.m. Monday
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins will not charge the security guard who shot and killed Banko Brown, a 24-year-old Black transgender man, last month at a Market Street Walgreens.
Jenkins announced her decision Monday and released a slew of evidence in the case, including security camera footage, bystander video and a 25-page report.
The six-minute Walgreens security camera video shows Brown and the guard, Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony, scuffling after Brown attempted to walk out of the Walgreens. Anthony pushes Brown to the floor and is seen lying on top of Brown and holding him from behind as they get up, and then fall back to the floor.
Eventually, the video shows Anthony letting Brown stand up. Brown grabs his bag and turns to leave. As Brown is on the threshold of the doorway, he turns around and gestures back toward Anthony. Brown is moving backward when he’s shot by Anthony.
Warning: This video shows the fatal shooting of Banko Brown.
The entire encounter is over in less than a minute, the video shows. Anthony fired once.
John Burris, the civil rights attorney who is representing Brown’s family, said the footage revealed “an outrageous, unconscionable act of violence on the part of the security officer.”
“The facts from the video do not support the use of deadly force,” Burris, who said the family intends to file a wrongful death lawsuit against Walgreens and Kingdom Group Protective Services, told KQED.
Jenkins said her decision not to file charges was based largely on Anthony’s statement to police in which he said he believed his life was in danger.
“Based on the criminal investigation, review of evidence, and evaluation of the case, we have determined that there is insufficient evidence to support the filing of criminal charges against Anthony,” the DA’s report concluded.
Jenkins, who first declined to file charges against Anthony on May 1 and released the video after public pressure mounted, wrote in the report that when Anthony attempted to stop Brown from leaving the Walgreens with stolen items, Brown “became physically combative, escalating the theft to a robbery.”