Septuagenarian Sues Kroger After Being Attacked For Handing Out Food In Parking Lot

You may remember the story from last August about an Atlanta-area man who said he was physically assaulted by a Kroger manager when he attempted to help out another customer in need by giving her some food he’d just purchased. Now the victim has now sued that former manager, the grocery chain, and a private security firm over the incident.

To bring you up to speed. The then 73-year-old Kroger customer operates a charity that provides perishable food to those in need. He’d been in the store buying items to be given out by his organization when he overheard another shopper saying something about being unable to pay for her purchases. So he told her to meet him out in the parking lot, where he could give her some things for free.

But this wasn’t okay with the manager, who followed the customer out to the parking lot and confronted him.

“The manager came outside with a security guard and told me to leave the property and I wasn’t allowed to sell food there,” the customer said at the time. “I told him that I wasn’t selling food.”

The customer then says he was body-slammed by the manager, resulting in cuts, broken glasses, and a torn rotator cuff.

Police charged the manager with simple battery and Kroger gave him the boot.

The customer’s lawsuit, filed last week in Fulton County State Court, accuses the manager of assault and battery, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional stress. It seeks damages of at least $3,500 to recoup medical expenses, legal fees, and unspecified punitive damages.

Kroger sued for manager’s alleged attack on senior [AJC.com]

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