As the controversy rages on over Banko Brown being shot and killed over $14 worth of shoplifted items, Supervisor Dean Preston is drafting legislation to prohibit retail security guards from drawing loaded weapons to protect store inventory.

The fallout at Tuesday’s SF Board of Supervisors meeting over the fatal Walgreens shooting of Banko Brown was the supervisors pushing DA Jenkins to release security video of the shooting. (Jenkins has declined to file charges against the security guard who shot Brown over an alleged shoplifting incident.) Since that alleged shoplifting amounted to only $14, Supervisor Dean Preston introduced legislation earlier in Tuesday's meeting to prevent security guards from drawing their loaded weapons at shoplifters.

According to Preston, the current city law says security guards may “draw or exhibit, other than in a holster, any handgun in response to an actual and a specific threat to person and/or property.”

“It’s entirely unacceptable that our local law includes drawing a weapon to respond to protecting property,” Preston said at Tuesday’s board meeting. “We need to make sure that our local law is crystal clear that a security guard cannot draw a weapon to protect property.”

“This is a crucial step that our city should take to prevent tragedies like what occurred to Bank Brown,” he added.

The Examiner notes that the state Bureau of Security and Investigative Services Firearms Training Manual from 2022 says that security guards should use draw their weapons only if there is “imminent threat to life,” and “only if there is no other option to the use of deadly force and only if the person has taken all precautions to avoid the use of deadly force.”

Related: Possible Standoff Takes Shape Between DA and SF Supervisors Over Banko Brown Case [SFist]

Image: Joe Kukura, SFist