Suspected Shoplifter Dies in Employee’s Chokehold; No Charges Expected
A CVS employee in Chicago who tackled a suspected shoplifter and held him in a chokehold isn’t expected to be charged in the man’s strangulation death.
The medical examiner ruled that the death of Anthony Kyser was a homicide, but police said the employee who restrained him won’t be charged, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. The employee had chased Kyser out of the store and down an alley late Saturday morning after seeing him stuff tubes of toothpaste in his pocket.
Witnesses said Kyser, an unemployed barber, yelled that he could not breathe as the CVS worker kept him in a chokehold for several minutes.
Kyser’s ex-wife, Ann Balboa, questioned the decision not to bring charges. “How is this not murder?” she told the Sun-Times. “It doesn’t make sense.” She said Kyser had been a good stepfather to her three sons, despite past brushes with the law.
Kyser had a 2005 drug conviction and a 1999 burglary conviction, the Chicago Tribune reports.
