Security guard allegedly detained suspected Safeway shoplifter before his death

TIGARD, Oregon (KPTV/Gray News) – A security guard at the Safeway supermarket chain is accused of holding a suspected shoplifter – allegedly by the neck at some point – before he later died at an Oregon hospital.

Tigard police announced Thursday that the Washington County District Attorney's Office had taken over the case, KPTV reports.

Officers from the Tigard and King City police departments responded to a disturbance at a Safeway grocery store on the south end of Tigard shortly before 10 a.m. on Aug. 9, a police statement said.

When officers arrived, they learned that a security guard had stopped a man suspected of shoplifting and held him to the ground. Witnesses told officers that at one point the man was held by the neck.

When officers arrived, the man, later identified as 46-year-old Michael Letendre, was unconscious.

Witnesses told officers that the security employee began CPR, then another store employee took over. When officers arrived, they continued CPR until paramedics arrived and took Letendre to the hospital, where he died on August 16.

According to police, the anti-theft employee was not a Safeway employee but worked for a private security company. Because he has not yet been charged with a crime, police are not releasing his name.

A Safeway spokesperson shared the following statement with KPTV:

“This is an employee of one of our third-party security providers. The provider has informed us that the employee no longer works for them. We are unable to comment further as the investigation is ongoing.”

The investigation is ongoing.

Copyright 2024 KPTV via Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved.