Oakland Man Brutally Beaten By Whole Foods Security Damn, does it EVER need to be this serious ? This man is in critical condition over an argument in the grocery store? According to Oakland Tribune reports : A Whole Foods Market security guard has been suspended after a violent altercation with a customer at an Oakland store, a spokeswoman said Friday. The alleged assault began about 9:30 p.m. Thursday inside the market located on Bay Place near Lake Merritt, according to spokeswoman Beth Krauss and a witness. Oakland police are investigating the incident as an assault. The witness, Zoe Marks, said in an interview by phone Friday the alleged assault began as a verbal argument between the male customer and a cashier and escalated after a security guard arrived. Marks, a Seattle native and lecturer at Scotland’s University of Edinburgh here for a conference, posted images of the customer lying in a pool of his own blood and another image of medics tending to him. The images have been widely shared on social media. “He wasn’t shouting at anyone. He wasn’t violent or disruptive,” Marks said of the customer. “There was no threat from him to any of the customers or employees. (We) felt safe until the security guard attacked him.” Marks, who gave her statement to Oakland police, said she watched as the guard slammed the man against a concrete pillar, put him in a chokehold until he passed out, and threw him out of the store. “No one called for help. They called for backup,” she said of store employees by phone on Friday. “They were treating him as a threat as he lay unconscious in his own blood.” Krauss said the images Marks posted to Facebook and Twitter “are disturbing to say the least.” “Whole Foods Market considers the safety and security of all team members, customers and members of our community a top priority,” Krauss wrote in an email. “While we move swiftly to gather the facts, we want to make it clear that Whole Foods Market takes a zero tolerance approach to violence,” Krauss wrote. One report claimed the altercation started over the man trying to use an Electronic Benefits Transfer Card. Just crazy though right? The woman who was able to get all these photos deserves serious kudos. Sometimes regular people have to step up to make sure people are treated right. Photos Courtesy Zoe Marks
