In late April, homeless transgender (biologically female) Banko Brown wanted to be just another statistic in San Francisco’s infamous crime epidemic as she tried to shoplift from a Walgreens. But this Walgreens was guarded by Michael Earl Wayne Anthony, who tried to stop Brown. A scuffle ensued and Brown was shot and killed. It was this violent person that CBS Morning tried to paint as a pillar of the community on Wednesday because Brown “was known for helping black transgender youth.”
“Now to San Francisco where there's growing outrage over the death of a man killed while allegedly shoplifting from a Walgreens. Surveillance video shows Banko Brown struggling with a security guard before he was shot and killed. Brown was unarmed,” co-anchor Nate Burleson proclaimed. He went on to huff that “The DA says no charges will be brought against the guard.”
Correspondent Nancy Chen delivered the report and stacked the deck in favor of Brown early. Instead of first giving the facts of the incident, she began the report with the lawyer for Brown’s family, John Burris, threatening to sue everyone involved and decrying District Attorney Brooke Jenkins for not charging Anthony with murder (Click “expand”):
[Cuts to video]
CHEN: Protests continued in San Francisco following the release of surveillance video by the district attorney's office showing the moments 24-year-old Banko Brown was shot and killed.
BURRIS: I will be bringing a complaint, a civil action complaint, against Walgreens, the security company, and the security officer himself.
CHEN: Famed civil rights attorney John Burris is representing Brown's family and says the shooting was unnecessary and unlawful.
BURRIS: I'm surprised at the district attorney, after seeing that video, chose not to go forward.
It was only after she set the stage as Brown supposedly being murdered in cold blood that Chen showed what happened. But she played a video that showed the altercation upside down and zoomed out (the camera had a fisheye lens from directly above), which made it hard for viewers to understand what happened. The only right-side-up images shared were of Anthony holding Brown in a headlock (pictured right) and him pointing his gun at her.
In her breakdown of the surveillance video, Chen noted “footage shows Brown with a bag in his hand walking toward the exit” as if she was just a normal shopper. And the rest treated Anthony as the problem in the situation:
The security guard, Michael Earl Wayne Anthony, blocks Brown, pushing and shoving him. The guard then appears to punch Brown several times before knocking him down to the ground. The men continue fighting for several seconds until Brown grabs the bag and heads to the exit. He turns toward Anthony who then fires a single shot at Brown who died later at the hospital.
This was followed up with another soundbite of Burris taking swipes at Anthony. “Security officer wasn't being beat up. The security officer was really physically punching on him, tossing him around like he was a rag muffin,” he lamented.
Chen then scoffed at Anthony’s statement to police where he stated Brown was threatening to stab him while they were fighting on the ground. She omitted any mention of Brown lunging at Anthony outside the store, which made the guard think Brown was attempting to make good on the threat.
The CBS “journalist” concluded her report with more fluff for Brown, boasting that she was a mentor to black trans kids and a ridiculous soundbite of an unidentified man claiming she was killed for “being hungry”:
CHEN: Brown, who is transgender, was known for helping black transgender youth and had been struggling with homelessness in the weeks before his death.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Tapes are telling us everything we know, that Banko was murdered because of his crime of being hungry.
Following the video portion of the segment, co-hosts Gayle King and Tony Dokoupil argued that Anthony was the one who should have changed their behavior in the situation. “He says he was afraid for his life, that he had been threatened. But just seems like there was other another way that could have ended. Person was unarmed. And leaving the store!” King whined.
“Shoplifting is a big issue in San Francisco, a lot of big cities. I don't know what the boundaries for security guards to be in that position,” Dokoupil said.
How about don’t commit crimes? Revolutionary!
CBS’s attempt to gaslight viewers on this self-defense incident was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Aleve and Google. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CBS Mornings
May 17, 2023
7:13:37 a.m. EasternNATE BURLESON: Now to San Francisco where there's growing outrage over the death of a man killed while allegedly shoplifting from a Walgreens. Surveillance video shows Banko Brown struggling with a security guard before he was shot and killed. Brown was unarmed. The DA says no charges will be brought against the guard. Nancy Chen has more, and we want to warn you the video is difficult to watch.
[Cuts to video]
NANCY CHEN: Protests continued in San Francisco following the release of surveillance video by the district attorney's office showing the moments 24-year-old Banko Brown was shot and killed.
JOHN BURRIS: I will be bringing a complaint, a civil action complaint, against Walgreens, the security company, and the security officer himself.
CHEN: Famed civil rights attorney John Burris is representing Brown's family and says the shooting was unnecessary and unlawful.
BURRIS: I'm surprised at the district attorney, after seeing that video, chose not to go forward.
CHEN: Surveillance footage shows Brown with a bag in his hand walking toward the exit. The security guard, Michael Earl Wayne Anthony, blocks Brown, pushing and shoving him. The guard then appears to punch Brown several times before knocking him down to the ground. The men continue fighting for several seconds until Brown grabs the bag and heads to the exit. He turns toward Anthony who then fires a single shot at Brown who died later at the hospital.
Burris says the video shows Anthony as the clear aggressor.
BURRIS: Security officer wasn't being beat up. The security officer was really physically punching on him, tossing him around like he was a rag muffin.
CHEN: But during an interview with police Anthony says Brown threatened to stab him with a knife.
MICHAEL EARL WAYNE ANTHONY: The whole time we were wrestling, she was saying she was going to stab me. And that's what really put the fear in my heart.
CHEN: San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said it was that interview and the video that in part fueled her decision not to pursue murder charges because Anthony instead acted in self-defense.
BROOKE JENKINS (D-San Francisco district attorney): We have to believe at the time that we charge a case that a jury of 12 would convict, not let's just charge the case and see what happens.
CHEN: Both Walgreens and the security company Anthony worked for have issued statements expressing condolences to Brown's family. Brown, who is transgender, was known for helping black transgender youth and had been struggling with homelessness in the weeks before his death.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Tapes are telling us everything we know, that Banko was murdered because of his crime of being hungry.
[Cuts to video]
GAYLE KING: So many questions in that story. And when you look at the video, for me it's hard to see exactly what's going on. Because there was -- clearly some kind of struggle there. He says he was afraid for his life, that he had been threatened. But just seems like there was other another way that could have ended.
[Crosstalk]
KING: Person was unarmed. And leaving the store!
TONY DOKOUPIL: Shoplifting is a big issue in San Francisco, a lot of big cities. I don't know what the boundaries for security guards to be in that position.
BURLESON: For a man doing his job.
DOKOUPIL: That was Nancy Chen reporting.
