SAN FRANCISCO—On Monday, May 1, San Francisco prosecutors refused to file charges against a security guard who was arrested on suspicion of shooting and killing 24 year old Banko Brown near a Walgreens on Thursday, April 27, arguing that the security guard acted out of self-defense.
Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony, who was the security guard in custody, was released on Monday. After authorities reviewed the evidence gathered by the San Francisco Police Department they decided not to file charges.
“We reviewed witness statements, statements from the suspect, and video footage of the incident and it does not meet the People’s burden to be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury that the suspect is guilty of a crime. We cannot bring forward charges when there is credible evidence of reasonable self-defense,” District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement. “Doing so would be unethical and create false hope for a successful prosecution.”
“It’s never easy to have to come to that conclusion,” Jenkins said, but, “my personal feelings cannot be what governs my decision. It has to be the law.”
San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said Friday, April 29, that the incident was, “a shoplift that went bad. The person that was shot was allegedly shoplifting, and it was a confrontation and the shooting happened from there.”
A family member of Brown’s told ABC7 that they were with him during the incident and that Brown was not shoplifting. It has not been confirmed if Brown was armed with a gun on that day.
On the same day Anthony was released, Brown’s loved ones held a rally outside the closed Walgreens demanding justice for his death. According to reports, the rally was also held to help raise awareness about housing issues many people in the transgender community face. Brown was a transgender person who was experiencing homelessness. Some members of that community experience homelessness before the age of 18.
Barbara Brown, who is the deceased step-mother, spoke to the San Francisco Chronicle in an interview. “This was a senseless death,” she told the news outlet. Many who attended the rally remembered Brown as a kind and dedicated member of San Francisco’s transgender community, who’d worked extensively with the Young Women’s Freedom Center, which works to reduce the incarceration of young women and transgender youth.
