A Walgreens employee and a suspected shoplifter were both arrested early Wednesday following a stabbing incident outside the chain’s 24-hour Castro location, authorities said.
Officers patrolling Castro Street near 18th Street were flagged down at around 4:35 a.m., a San Francisco Police Department spokesperson said.
Video from the scene posted to social media appears to capture the moment immediately after the assault.
The investigation revealed that the injured man, identified as 30-year-old Larry Whitlock, had been “observed fleeing from a store with unpaid store merchandise,” police said. Whitlock and a store employee, identified as 45-year-old Guang Hong, engaged in a verbal confrontation outside the business that escalated into a physical altercation.
Fire officials confirmed that they transported a person to a hospital with a stab wound to the eye.
Hong was arrested and booked into jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon; he remains in custody, according to jail records. Whitlock was cited for battery and petty theft before being transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
Later Wednesday, a Walgreens manager confirmed that an employee had been arrested in connection with the incident but declined further comment, referring inquiries to corporate communications.
“Walgreens is aware of the incident and cooperating with the police in their investigation,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
Hong declined medical attention at the scene, police said.
A Castro neighborhood association ambassador who spoke to a reporter Wednesday said he was unaware of the incident but noted a “persistent homeless presence” outside the Walgreens and nearby businesses, sometimes beginning in the early hours of the morning.
Whitlock was incarcerated in San Francisco County Jail in May on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and exhibiting a deadly weapon, according to Sheriff’s Department booking records.
Wednesday’s arrests come nearly two years after a fatal shooting outside another Walgreens location. In April 2023, Banko Brown, a 24-year-old transgender man, was shot by a security guard at a Walgreens, now shuttered, in downtown San Francisco. Authorities at the time said Brown was suspected of shoplifting when he was killed.
The security guard in that case, Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony, was initially detained but released after District Attorney Brooke Jenkins declined to file charges, determining that he had acted in self-defense. The decision sparked protests from community activists and raised questions about the use of force in retail theft situations. Brown’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Walgreens and the security company.
Police said Wedensday’s incident remains an open and active investigation.