Staff Tackles and Chokes Deaf Shopper for "ALLEGEDLY" Shoplifting

This is what I know now. Alex Pea was charged with Robbery and assalt. The news stations in California will let you know most of it.

PRESS RELEASE
___
August 19, 2010
Contacts: John Henrichs
Henrichs Law Firm. P.C.
3250 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 2000
Los Angeles, CA 90010
Telephone: (213) 637-0500
Facsimile (213) 637-0503
jhenrichs@henrichslaw.com
Law Offices of
LUIS A.CARRILLO
1525 Fair Oaks Avenue
South Pasadena, CA 91030
Telephone (626) 799-9375
lac4justice@yahoo.com

DEAF MAN SUSPECTED OF SHOPLIFTING TORTURED AT FOREVER 21
Security Uses Excessive Force to Subdue a Suspected Shoplifter
[Hollywood, CA] August 19, 2010. On August 7, 2010, at Forever 21's flagship store in Hollywood, California, Alejandro "Alex" Rea, a deaf man, was suspected of shoplifting. As he left the store he was confronted and brutally attacked by store security guards.

According to Mr. Rea, the security guard approached him from behind and went around in front of him. The guard showed him some type of badge and was mumbling something. Mr. Rea motioned to him with his hand that he was deaf, but the security guard made no effort to communicate with him with a note pad, so Mr. Rea sort of shrugged his shoulders and took one step away. The security guard, suddenly jumped on him and started chocking him. The security guard never made another attempt to get eye contact with him, nor did he try to communicate with him again. The guard threw Mr. Rea to the ground, breaking his glasses, and injuring his left shoulder, hip, knee and leg.

"The most that store security can do, under the law, to detain a suspected shoplifter is use reasonable force. What Forever 21 did went well beyond that. It was outrageous. It was despicable. Forever 21 used excessive force under the circumstances. This was shoplifting, not protecting Fort Knox," said John Henrichs counsel for Alex and Pablo Rea.

The incident was caught on cell phone video by Joshua Fountain and displayed on YouTube at the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fRv--C_vao

As the video, which has been viewed almost 600,000 times, shows the security guard continued to choke Mr. Rea for quite some time, and he kept choking Mr. Rea even after people were yelling at him that Mr. Rea was turning purple. At first Mr. Rea was cooperative and just stayed on the ground. But when the guard started choking him harder, he could not breathe, so Mr. Rea attempted to get the guards attention by tapping him on the head and trying to use sign language to tell him to stop choking him.
-more-
Forever 21 contends that they did what was necessary to detain a "fleeing" suspect, even though he was not fleeing the scene. The video plainly shows that the security guard was trying to hurt Mr. Rea. In fact, after the guard took him back into the office, he shoved Mr. Rea against the wall, not once, but twice. "The bottom line here is that this security guard lost his head when the thought he was being ignored. This happens all too often to the deaf, even in everyday life, and that has to change" said Mr. Henrichs.
"It is no accident that the YouTube video has over 562,000 views. It is because it has hit a sensitive nerve. The people are outraged, they fundamentally understand that what happened was wrong on several levels. It is especially traumatic when it happened to a handicapped person" said Mr. Henrichs.

After the incident, Kristen Strickler of Forever 21's Marketing Department released the following statement to the press "We recognize that the security guard used excessive force, which is against our store policy and have suspended him indefinitely."




According to Mr. Henrichs, "the Henrichs Law Firm has written a letter to Forever 21 and asked to meet with them and to see if they want to participate in an out-of-court resolution of this matter. If they want to do the honorable thing, they will step up to their responsibility. If they do not, we plan on filing a lawsuit and aggressively pursuing it." As of the date of this press release the Henrichs Law Firm has not heard back from Forever 21.

###



XXI
6801 Hollywood Blvd
#1C-134
Los Angeles, CA 90028
Neighborhood: Hollywood

(323) 462-8500
www.forever21.com

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• hearing trouble
• shoplifting
• tackles
• harass
• beatup
• chokes
• choking
• staff
• Hollywood
• Highland
• XXI
• Clothing
• Store
• Police
• Security
• fight
• rumble
• wrestle
• lawsuit
• caught on tape
• deaf
• shoppers

[1lionmurrill]

@johnnybagofdonets You are full of ####. You would not do a damn thing.

[MarishRox]

Utterly disgusting. The guard should have been had up for assault n battery

[amnbrigliaan]

Boooy if I was in the jury.... there's no limit to the jury demand I would co sign! this is outrageous!

[marcmantione]

That pissed me off

[JohnLawrenceCobraKai]

@rm010675 You wouldn't have done anything.

[rm010675]

why didn't you drop the fucking camera and go help the poor fucker? i can't believe how everyone just stood around and watched i would have choked that stupid gaurd out and she how he liked it.

[detective106]

@JakeDean91909 Lol im apparently not the "butt hurt" one here what was all that shit at the end your life's story? That's alright bro people won't judge you... no wait... yeah they probably will. Oh but maybe they will start feeling sorry for you if you tell them about how your parents were on meth when they had you and your mom tried having you aborted.. No wait ... they would probably still not give a shit. lol

[JakeDean91909]

@detective106 LMAO so your stero typing me and Im the hill billy hahahaha if you knew half of what you think you do you wouldnt be on youtube talking shit loser ass dick face baby raping butt hurt little sissy! I say F U PAY ME!

[detective106]

@JakeDean91909 Was I supposed to come up with somethin little Iowa fag?? I was pointing out a true statement of the bullshit you just tried to feed everyone lol. Sooo if pointing out the obvious is "Trying to come up with something" then I would say your a dumb inbred hillbilly to and I PROBABLY would be pretty damn close. Have a nice day guy.

[JakeDean91909]

@COOLSTORYHAN5EL Your dumb as dumb can be look up history then talk shit about Iowa and why the fuck you hating on IOWA anyway? Where do You live thats so great!?

[JakeDean91909]

@detective106 Really thats the best you could come up with. Your a bag of dicks!