Fatal shooting by security guard at San Francisco Walgreens puts focus on limits of private security
The fatal shooting of a 24-year-old woman by an armed private security guard outside a San Francisco Walgreens store is raising questions about the scope of and justification for the industry.
Most private security guards in public do not carry a weapon but those that do go through rigorous training to be ready for intense situations.
The profession is becoming increasingly popular as businesses grow desperate to protect their storefronts and property.
UPDATE: Activists to gather at San Francisco Walgreens where security guard fatally shot young person
Don Cameron has dedicated his career to training law enforcement and armed security.
"The stores want their property protected," Cameron told CBS News Bay Area. "But you can't tell a security guard 'Protect my property by shooting the people that are trying to steal it,'" he continued. "They're damned if they do they're damned if they don't."
While many details remain unknown about what happened at the Walgreens on Market Street Thursday evening, Cameron says he's shocked that a private security guard fired his weapon if the situation only involved a suspected robbery.
"Is the person threatening your life and the life of somebody else? That's the bottom line," said Cameron. "You don't shoot people for property crimes."
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of registered guards has increased in recent years with an additional 1,830 in the Bay Area since 2019. But the number of armed guards remains slim as the qualifications are more rigorous.
Armed guards are required to undergo extensive training and evaluations before they are certified and must participate in quarterly firearm training but there is no ongoing mental health evaluation.
"It's very hard training because you don't get the adrenaline rush," Cameron explained. "You try. You do stress things to get the person stressed, but you can't get them that adrenaline rush [like] when you actually see somebody standing there in front of you pointing a gun at you, or coming at you … you can simulate a lot of things that you can't simulate the real thing."
We checked the state's database and in this case, the security guard, 33-year-old Michael Earl Wayne Anthony, had an active permit to operate as an armed security guard.
But defense attorney Tony Brass says that doesn't give him any special legal privileges.
"The legal protection for someone in that role they're going to come from the fact that he's allowed to be there with a firearm. So a civilian wouldn't be allowed to have a loaded gun in a Walgreens but he's permitted to do that. But that's where the protection ends," Brass explained. "You're only allowed to use deadly force in order to prevent great bodily injury or deadly force from being used on yourself or somebody else."
In Cameron's more than five decades of experience and training in law enforcement, he says protective personnel are trained to only use force if bodily harm is imminent.
"Property theft is not something he could shoot people for," said Cameron. "Police officers can't shoot people for it, citizens can't shoot people for it."
