Tennessee has a six-week abortion ban that took effect shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Tennessee also has some of the highest gun death rates in the country, thanks to its absurdly lax gun laws. The state’s supposed “culture of life” collided with its perverse gun obsession last week when an armed Walgreens employee in Nashville shot a woman he suspected of shoplifting. She’s seven months pregnant.
Mitarius Boyd, a 21-year-old Walgreens “team leader,” told the police that another employee had notified him that Travonsha Ferguson, 24, and another woman were allegedly shoplifting cosmetics from the store. He started recording the women on his cell phone (presumably for non-creepy reasons) as they put items in a shopping cart and a large shoulder bag, police said. He then followed the women to their car in the parking lot.
After Boyd sneaked up on the women from the rear side of the car (probably freaking them out), one of them sprayed mace at him. That is an expected result when strange men approach women. That’s when Boyd pulled out his semi-automatic pistol and started shooting. He claimed he was afraid for his life and didn’t know if they were armed, but if they were, they probably wouldn’t have led with mace, which unlike a firearm is a non-lethal self-defense tool.
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Ferguson had multiple gun shot wounds, and the other woman took her to the hospital. Her baby survived after an emergency c-section. The child wasn’t directly injured by the gunfire but remains in critical condition, along with Ferguson.
Walgreens announced in a statement Sunday that Boyd is “no longer employed at Walgreens,” despite his valiant efforts at saving the company tens of dollars in drugstore cosmetics.
“The safety of our patients, customers and team members is our top priority, and violence of any kind will not be tolerated at our stores,” Walgreens said. “We take this matter seriously and are cooperating with local authorities.”
Walgreens reportedly instructs actual security guards not to confront shoplifters but instead to de-escalate situations as necessary. Most people with retail experience have confirmed that they were explicitly trained never to engage shoplifters.
Yes, court records reveal that Ferguson has a criminal record, but that doesn’t mean she should’ve been shot in a parking lot by a whiny baby man, who’d freaked out after getting pepper-sprayed. Boyd was obviously not a trained law enforcement officer, and based on his own record, he seems like someone who should’ve never had a gun. He was charged with disorderly conduct in 2022 after refusing to leave a Best Buy store. The staff told him that the Play Station 5 wasn’t in stock and he refused to leave. The charge was later dismissed, leaving him free to pursue his career as an amateur Walgreens Mall Cop.
Nashville police confirm that Boyd is cooperating with an investigation into the shooting, and the Nashville District Attorney will ultimately determine whether to charge him. However, Boyd might walk away from all this, because of course Tennessee has the oh-so-life-affirming “stand your ground” law, which allows someone to use deadly force in public even if they have ample opportunity to retreat or simply mind their own business. There’s also no obligation to use non-lethal force if possible.
Boyd would just need to demonstrate that he was legally allowed to be in that parking lot and that he reasonably believed he might die or face serious bodily injury. The fact that Boyd might wind up freely patrolling the streets again for pregnant shoplifting suspects should not make any of us rest easy.
[CBS News]
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