Hank’s store, site of armed protest, fined $20K for unlicensed security guard with checkered past
New Orleans LA June 21 2021
A 9th Ward store that has been the target of protesters over a deadly shooting in the parking last year was hit with a $20,000 fine Saturday for hiring an unlicensed security guard with a checkered history.
At around 5:30 p.m., the executive director of the Louisiana State Board of Private Security Examiners, Fabian Blache III, arrived at Hank’s Seafood & Supermarket with an order notifying the store that their security guard, Michael Foster, didn’t possess a valid license. “You are ordered to cease and desist any further use of this provider of security services,” read the notice, which added that the board had assessed an initial fine of $20,000, or $5,000 daily for four days.
The fine was yet another economic hit for the store, which has seen a marked drop in business because of a boycott initiated a week ago by the New Black Panther Party, which is demanding security-video footage from Oct. 30, when 24-year-old Corey Garrison was shot in the store’s parking lot by a manager of the business.
The New Orleans Police Department deemed the shooting a “justifiable homicide” the next day, saying that Garrison had pulled a gun first. His family disputes that, saying that he had a gun in his waistband but never removed it.
Since the protest began, Panther members have walked the store’s front sidewalk, openly but legally armed, shouting “Shut it down!” through a bullhorn and distributing detailed flyers about the circumstances behind Garrison’s death to passing motorists.
Last weekend, neighbors were rattled by the level of fire power in one small spot: the armed protesters, the pair of Hank’s employees leaning on coolers inside with pistols strapped to their hips, and by Foster, who had posted himself outside next to the front door. He was wearing paramilitary gear and carrying what appeared to be an AR-15 rifle.
A concerned citizen wrote state Rep. Candace Newell, D-New Orleans, about the scene.
While Newell is not able to resolve questions about Garrison’s death — that’s up to the district attorney and police chief, she said — she does have the authority to contact Blache’s board. The board regulates private security, and state law requires “qualifying criteria in a professional field in which unqualified individuals may injure the public.”
Newell was especially concerned about potential gunfire at Hank’s, which stands at 2634 St. Claude Ave., near the street’s busy Franklin Avenue intersection. Traffic on St. Claude comes to a standstill in front of the store several times each day, as freight trains block St. Claude at Homer Plessy Way. “I took all that into consideration when I saw the picture of Foster out here,” she said. “I thought, ‘What if?’”
With one look at a published photo of Foster, Blache knew that he was in violation of his board’s policies. Any private guard who requires a semi-assault rifle must request special permission from Blache and justify its use.
When he looked further, he discovered that Foster wasn’t qualified to be a security officer in Louisiana, so he brought a second cease-and-desist for Foster, fining him $5,000 for “engaging in providing security services without a license.”
Hank’s store manager told Blache that Foster was no longer working there and is no longer
Foster disappeared from the store after a reporter asked about him last week, when photographer Abdul Aziz recognized Foster from a high-profile criminal case three years earlier.
In 2018, Foster had fired off at least nine shots in the yard of the Bell Artspace Campus in the 6th Ward. Though no one was injured, eight rounds hit a Nissan in the complex’s parking lot and shattered its windshield. Foster had never met the woman who owned the car or her small children, so it was unclear why he shot up her car.
The incident terrified some artists who live in the apartment complex, because a witness there had heard him talking of “killing Black people” and because some residents who heard the shots saw his weapon’s red scope scan the building, as if looking for someone to show up in a window.
Security-camera footage showed that Foster had been dropped off next to the complex by a car from a ride-hailing service, which had brought him from the French Quarter, where witnesses had seen him get into an argument with a group of Black motorcyclists. Foster pleaded guilty in April to domestic criminal damage of property and the illegal carrying of a weapon. He was ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution and was prohibited from buying or possessing a firearm during a one-day probationary period.
Because Louisiana law requires security guards to show that they are of “good character,” along with other criteria, Foster would likely fall short, even if he did go through the proper training and application. “He would never get a license from my agency,” Blache said.
At this point, the store can appeal the fine and appear in front of Blache’s board to argue their case. But the fine was assessed for a mere four days of Foster’s employ, which seems to date back to at least December, judging from snapshots with customers that appear on Hank’s social media.
On Saturday, Blache asked Hank’s manager to show evidence of Foster’s length of employment. If the store doesn’t comply, he said he will issue an administrative subpoena next week for a year’s worth of employee records.
nola.com
