The 19-year-old Timothy Milan was caught shoplifting, suspect died last Saturday. An autopsy showed that the cause of his death was due to a lack of oxygen to the brain.
"We are sorry for the death of the young man, it was never our intentions for these kinds of things to happen," Panzer's Department Store manger Paula Smith said.
A guard at Panzer's Department Store told police he saw Milan stuff two sweaters down his pants legs, then walk past a checkout line and out of the department store.
"We went outside to see what was going to happen and we saw the boy get dragged to the ground," Eye witness Sherry Carter said.
The guard then began to chase Milan, who ran, and three bystanders joined in the pursuit. They caught up with Milan, and, when he resisted, one of the bystanders applied a headlock to him.
"Milan should never have run from the guard, we believe he had a run in with police in the past," Police Michael Williams said. "The gentleman who held onto Milan was just being a good citizen."
Police today said they do not plan to charge anyone involved in the case with a crime.
"We are currently looking at revising our policies regarding shoplifting and how we keep these kinds of things from happening," Smith said.
The police said the bystanders did not mean to injure Milan or to kill him, but that he was fighting violently—punching and kicking at his captors and even trying to bite them—and that they were simply trying to restrain him and trying to help capture a suspected criminal.
"My wife and I are just in ruins over this," Timothy Milan's Father, Eric Milan. "He was our only child and he had never had problems with the law."
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