Posted on 05/24/2016 4:05:38 AM PDT by BiggerTigger
A Safeway clerk who says he punched a man in self-defense has been suspended by the supermarket chain.
Surveillance video obtained by KIRO 7 shows Anthony Johnson in a fight with a man he says pulled a knife on him. “I did what anybody else would do, I defended myself,” Johnson said.
But Johnson says even though police agree he was acting in self-defense, Safeway has suspended him for the fight while they investigate the incident.
“You know my manager was literally there,” Johnson said. “He was the one who told me there was a knife being drawn. Why should I be punished for something that I could have been sent to the hospital, maybe to my grave, for?” It was Thursday when Johnson said he caught two men inside the store in the 6000 block of 6th Avenue trying to steal things several different times. When he found the men back in the store around 10 p.m., he confronted them along with his manager. As they were trying to get the men to leave, one of them drew a knife.
“I looked down, he had the knife like this, pointed up. He was this close to my ribs,” Johnson said. “I punched the guy. I tried to get the knife away from him.” The video shows Johnson knocking the man away from him and wrestling him for the weapon. Johnson says he managed to get the knife away and the men ran off.
He filed a report with the Tacoma Police Department. Police spokeswoman Officer Shelby Boyd said officers found no reason to charge Johnson with a crime because he acted in self-defense.
Johnson says he's angry that Safeway isn't allowing him to get back to work.
“Now I’m getting punished for a deadly situation? That’s just wrong,” Johnson said.
KIRO 7 called the media representative at Safeway’s headquarters in Pleasanton, California, for comment on the incident and the suspension. The call was not returned.
The guy still has his job
Yes - you were supposed to curl up in your safe space and suck your thumb.
Where do you go to college, anyway?
(Well done!)
More PC BS!
The suspension by Safeway management confirms them to be gutless cowards and liberal scum.
Yep, I don’t understand why people don’t get that. Stores have to do this because they ARE going to get sued.
Mr Johnson needs to tan up.
If he wasn’t so pale, they would give him a bonus!
I would file a workers vomi claim for physical and emotional injury suffered during the incident. Right now the employee I’d suspended and there are no indications that he is being paid during the suspension.
Should have been Paid Time Off.
That way he is not being punished.
Hasn’t Safeway been split up and sold?
I work for ATT. They’re worse.
I hate Safeway. Hate it. Nothing to do with the story on why I hate Safeway. In Maryland where i lived, I was one mile from the store and I drove 5 to Giant. In Florida, thank God there are no Safeway’s near me. Just Winn Dixie and Publix which I go to both from time to time.
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