Featured News News Civil Rights Attorney Carl Douglas Calls for Boycott of Walgreens After Unarmed Black Man is Killed by Security Guard
December 13, 2018
By Jasmyne A. Cannick
Special to the L.A. Watts Times
National civil rights and personal injury attorney Carl Douglas is calling for a boycott of Walgreens after the death of a 21-year-old unarmed Black man.
Jonathan Hart, who was also known as Sky Young, died Dec. 2 inside the Walgreens store at Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood.
The guard allegedly claimed that Hart was shoplifting. Authorities said there was a brief confrontation between the unarmed Hart and the unidentified guard, who opened fire when Hart tried to leave the store. According to the coroner, Hart was shot in the neck from behind.
“Jonathan was not shoplifting,” said attorney Carl Douglas Tuesday at a press conference in his Ladera Heights office. “Let me repeat that. Jonathan was not shoplifting when he was shot. That's the propaganda Walgreens wants you to report.”
He added: “I dare say, Jonathan Hart was profiled because he was homeless. He was harassed because he was gay and he was shot because he was Black.”
Douglas said he plans to file a lawsuit against Walgreens seeking $525 million in damages and an explanation about why it has armed guards only at stores in minority communities. Walgreens is the the second-largest pharmacy store chain in the U.S. and the largest in the world.
In Los Angeles, Walgreens has employed armed guards at their stores located at Slauson Avenue and Western Avenue, 6th Street and Vermont Avenue, in downtown at 7th Street and Hope Street, and in Inglewood on La Brea Avenue and Florence Avenue.
Douglas says that Walgreens picks and chooses where to place armed security guards.
“Each of these stores are in the black, brown and homeless and LGBT communities, and we want to know why,” he said.
In addition to calling for a boycott of Walgreens, Douglas is calling on District Attorney Jackie Lacey to charge the security guard with manslaughter.
“DA Jackie Lacey was a a classmate of mine at Dorsey High School. She has had a troubling past of failing to charge officers that involved in suspected acts of excessive force.”
Douglas then went on to call on Lacey to arrest the security guard.
The security guard, whose name has not been released, was not arrested in connection with the shooting.
Walgreens issued a statement saying the company has “extended our deepest and most sincere condolences” to Hart's family, and noting that as a result of the shooting, “we immediately terminated the security company.”
“We are committed to providing a safe environment for our employees, patients and customers in the communities we serve,” according to the company. “We contract for armed and unarmed security, as well as video surveillance, in our stores based on the public safety needs of each location. We operate in thousands of communities and neighborhoods across the nation and the suggestion that we would inappropriately serve any community is simply false. We firmly believe everyone should be welcomed and treated equally in all of our stores.”
Funeral services for Hart will take place next week. There is a GoFundMe page to help pay for his final expenses located online at gofundme.com/justice4sky.