Best Buy
A killer deal
BY BRETT BURSEY
Erroll Maitland is the stepfather of Douglas Fischer, who died at the hands of a security guard at Best Buy in Spartanburg. Maitland says questions about the incident have yet to be answered. |
Customers checking out of Best Buy in
Spartanburg are likely to be greeted at the door by a smiling but
physically imposing security guard wearing a bright yellow t-shirt and an
"I Care" name tag identifying him as "Ricky."
Ricky Coleman was on duty the afternoon of July 20 when Douglas
Fischer went shopping at Best Buy for a new computer, which he planned to
buy with a fraudulent credit card.
Fischer, a 24-year-old Georgia State University business major, was
living in Atlanta when he showed up at the Best Buy to indulge in what one
of his friends calls "Doug's worst habit": using phony credit cards.
After ringing up $4,500 in computer equipment, Fischer was rolling his
cart towards the door when he was confronted by Coleman and assistant
manager Tom Davies, who told him they wanted to check his receipt.
After Fischer took off running, Coleman had him by the neck before he
hit the parking lot.
The transcript of the 911 call shows Best Buy manager David Shomo
telling the operator, "We have him in a headlock right now."
The two went down and struggled on the pavement.
"Coleman was choking Fischer," said Robert Godfrey, who witnessed the
scene. "Another guy [Davies] was sitting on his back."
Godfrey was on his way into the store when the incident started.
"There was no reason to choke him," he said. "They had him on the ground
with his hands behind his back but Coleman kept choking him. It was
ridiculous. Fischer was spitting up blood and choking, it was obvious he
couldn't breathe. Coleman said, Quit fighting or I'll break your fucking
neck.'"
Ricky Coleman, Best Buy bouncer |
Godfrey was disturbed by what he saw. "It was like Coleman hated
Fischer. He didn't act like a professional security guard; it was more
like a barroom fight."
Godfrey was not the only witness that afternoon. "There was a
construction worker standing next to me," Godfrey said. "He told me
They're going to kill him.' "
After Fischer stopped moving, the construction worker walked over and
checked Fischer's pulse. "He's dead," he said and walked off.
He drove back by in his pickup and warned, "You'd better start
resuscitation or you're going to have one hell of a lawsuit.
"They flipped Fischer over so hard that I felt his head hit the ground
15 feet away," Godfrey said.
Coleman and Davies failed in their attempts to breathe life back into
Douglas Fischer.
o o o
Spartanburg County coroner Jim Burnett ruled Sept. 25 that Fischer s
death was a homicide but that no one should face charges.
"I do not see any basis for any legal charges or any criminal charges
being brought against the employees of Best Buy," Burnett said.
He concluded that an autopsy provided no evidence that Fischer was
choked, and that a latent heart condition was the cause of death.
"It appears at this point that he was responsible for his own death,"
Burnett said. "It's almost like to me if a man is drunk and runs into a
tree and tries to blame the person who planted the tree for causing his
injuries."
Erroll Maitland, who raised Fischer after the boy's parents died when
he was three, is outraged that Spartanburg authorities ruled his adopted
son's death an accident.
"The coroner is allowing Best Buy's private security guards to be the
judge, jury and executioner," Maitland said. "What Douglas did was dumb
and unacceptable, but certainly didn't warrant a death sentence. My son
was lynched."
o o o
Maitland arranged for Ful-ton County deputy chief medical examiner
Dr. Kris Sperry to perform a second autopsy in Atlanta. Sperry determined
that Fischer died as a result of being choked.
"The comment made by [Burnett] about this man causing his own death is
really not very smart," Sperry said. "That sort of opinion is just one
step away from saying he deserved it."
On Feb. 12, 7th District Solicitor Hol-man Gossett Jr. ruled Fischer's
death an "accidental homicide."
"The issue in this case is not what caused his death," said assistant
solicitor Anthony Mabry after the decision not to prosecute anyone for
Fischer's death.
"One pathologist said he died from excitement, another said he died
from being choked. The legal issue here is not how he died," Mabry said,
"but did security guards have a right to put their hands on Mr. Fischer.
When they attempted to make a lawful arrest, he resisted. They have the
right to use force."pa
When asked if Coleman's past record of violent assaults had any
bearing on the ruling of accidental homicide or the consideration of
excessive force, Mabry said, We considered the facts of what happened at
the store. [Coleman's] past didn't come into play in this incident."
Mabry suggested that Coleman's past and Best Buy's responsibility for
hiring and supervising him are issues for a civil lawsuit to determine.
o o o
On Aug. 5, Erroll Maitland received an anonymous letter from
Spartanburg advising him to look into Coleman's past.
"Ricky Coleman is a very vicious person," the handwritten note said.
"He is well-versed in judo and karate. He knows how to put any type death
hold on a man. Many people are afraid of him, including myself. He is VERY
MEAN and someone no one wants to tangle with."
When Best Buy hired Coleman as a security guard (the store had only
been open for two weeks at the time of Fischer's death) there were
outstanding warrants for Coleman in Greenville.
Coleman was arrested in November 1994 for Violation of the Private
Security Act, Assault and Battery and Pointing a Firearm at a Person.
Coleman didn't show up at his trial, and bench warrants are still
outstanding.
SLED initiated the charge for violating the Private Security Act
because Coleman was not licensed to run a private security service. On
Nov. 11, 1994, Coleman was working security at Club 7 in Greenville under
the name of Coleman Security.
The police incident report charging Coleman with assault and battery
indicates that after security guards maced an unruly customer at the
nightclub door, Cole-man followed the man and maced him again as he sat in
his car.
Coleman then followed the man to a pay phone where he was talking to
Greenville police, pulled a pistol on him, forced him to the ground and
handcuffed him. The man brought charges against Coleman for assault and
battery and pointing a pistol.
SLED charged Coleman with violating the Private Security Act that
requires security agencies to be licensed.
Greenville Police Lt. G.S. McLaughlin said recently (before he knew
Coleman was involved at Best Buy) that, "We've had trouble with Coleman
and his security outfit before. They are untrained, overreacting and
causing more trouble than they solve. Their idea of security was shooting
the customers."
Lt. McLaughlin was surprised that SLED hadn't picked up Coleman on the
outstanding warrants and shocked to learn that Coleman was involved in the
death at Best Buy.
McLaughlin said he wouldn't be surprised if Coleman used excessive
force. "That's this guy's way of dealing with problems," he said.
"What surprises me is that any responsible company would hire him to
be a security guard. The other scary thing is that this [death] happened
and SLED hasn't served outstanding warrants."
McLaughlin noted that the chokehold that Coleman used on Fischer has
been banned by police departments. "Three or four minutes of a chokehold
is what kills people," McLaughlin said.
A check of Coleman's driving record at the Department of Public Safety
indicated he has been arrested six times since April 1993 for driving
under suspension. The latest charge of "habitual offender" on Dec. 21,
1994, cost Coleman his license until the year 2000.
A Best Buy spokesperson in their Minneapolis headquarters said that
Coleman's police record, like their 40,000 other employees, would have
been checked before he was hired. Best Buy has stores in 29 states and
assets of over $1.5 billion.
Douglas Fischer |
"We called him Papu," said Fischer's housemate Ieshia. "We lived
together
not
romantically, but as brother and sister, for the past three years. We went
to church together, and six weeks before he passed he was baptized and
gave himself to Christ.
"He bought my children their first puppy. I only told them in the last
few days that Pa
that's what they called him
was
dead. What he did was wrong. Douglas wasn't perfect, but he was something
special. Those people at Best Buy don't know what they took from us."
Fischer's father is convinced that the fact that his son and Coleman's
other victims have been black reflects a racist tendency on the part of
Spartanburg authorities to ignore the situation.
When Lloyd Maitland, Fischer's uncle, wanted to place a wreath on the
site where his nephew died, he called Spartanburg County Council member
David Dennis for help. Maitland explained that it was a New York city
custom to place flowers on the site where someone had died.
According to Maitland, Dennis responded by saying, "I've never heard
of such a custom and I don't care about the customs of you Northerners.
Why don't you northern niggers keep your asses up there and we'll keep our
asses down here."
Dennis told the Spartanburg Herald-Journal last August that the
FBI had been asked to look into telephone threats "made against county
personnel and property."
According to the Herald-Journal, the calls included death
threats and at least one threat to blow up the county administration
building. Most of the calls went to Spartanburg Coroner Burnett's office
and were believed to have come from listeners of a New York city radio
station where Fischer's father works.
Erroll Maitland is a producer and reporter for WBAI, the second-oldest
listener-supported station in the country and an original member of the
progressive Pacifica Network. Maitland gave out the phone number of the
Spartanburg coroner's office and urged listeners to call Burnett and
demand justice.
"I want to see someone held responsible for my son's death," Maitland
said, "I'm disgusted that not a single law enforcement agency in the state
has been willing to bring a case and let a jury decide."
At press time, Ricky Coleman is still providing security for
Spartanburg Best Buy, and warrants for his arrest are still outstanding at
SLED and in Greenville County.
"The coroner is allowing Best Buy's private security guards to be the judge, jury and executioner. What Douglas did was dumb and unacceptable, but certainly didn't warrant a death sentence. My son was lynched."
Erroll Maitland
