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| (credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) |
“Every few seconds he would turn around and push her and then he actually kicked her,” Young said. “I told him to calm down and he was just irate.”
Young said Tran refused to stop and jumped in to stop the assault.
“I saw no one was intervening in the situation and I just became afraid for her safety and also other customers safety,” Young said. “The guy was out of control and pretty much lost it in there.”
Chief Ron Langford of the Del Ray Oaks Police said if Ryan did not intervene, things could have become much worse for the victim.
But Young said Safeway has suspended him without pay, for supposedly violating company policy. The store has not given word on if or when he will be allowed back.
“We understand about policy, but at some point someone has to do something. And in my mind, in this case Ryan did the right thing,” Langford said.
Young has no income, while his wife is five months pregnant.
“It’s a tremendous amount of stress on me, my wife as well. And I don’t think anyone should have to second-guess themselves or feel bad doing something that was right,” he said.
Even if Safeway doesn’t agree, Young said he has no regrets.
“How many people have been injured, murdered, whatever in front of everyone because everyone looks the other way and no one wants to get involved?” he said.
Safeway’s corporate offices have not responded to CBS 5’s requests for comment as of Tuesday night.
A manager at a Safeway store in San Francisco told CBS 5 he wasn’t sure of an official policy, but he said employees are supposed to contact store security or a manager if they see a conflict inside the store.
Commentary: While Mr. Young may have gone against Safeway policy he was morally correct. Pushing and shoving could have caused this young lady to fall injuring herself and the unborn child. Safeway management should have realized that this is not the average incident covered by a obviously less than comprehensive written static manual. Safeway suspended Mr. Young for a month because he did the right thing? If you were pregnant and your significant other was physically abusing you wouldn't you want someone to step in and say something? If the woman had of fallen, there would have most certainly been a lawsuit against Safeway. I commend Mr. Young on his action and feel that Safeway is in the wrong for disciplining him at all, let alone so severely. I think it's the corporate attitude that we can put warm bodies in a position, expect them to think on their own, then when they don't do what we think they can we'll just discipline them and if they quit we'll hire someone else....I personally will boycott Safeway for this action. I've been looking for a reason to shop at Trader Joes, this is it.
