January 09, 2024
Staff Photo/PhillyVoice
The family of Macy's security guard Eric Harrison, who was fatally stabbed at the Center City store in December, announced a lawsuit against the company alleging there were security failures at the building.
The family of Eric Harrison, the Macy's security guard who was stabbed to death at the Center City department store in December, will file a wrongful death lawsuit against the company and the owners of the building on Market Street, their attorneys said Tuesday.
Harrison, 27, was killed Dec. 4 after a shoplifter attempted to steal hats from the store that morning, police said. The suspect initially left the building when confronted by other security guards but returned to Macy's about 15 minutes later armed with a knife and shouting threats, police said.
The suspect stabbed Harrison in the neck, investigators said, and another security guard was slashed in the face and arm as he tried to help Harrison. The two guards were not armed. Later that day, 30-year-old Tyrone Tunnell was arrested at a SEPTA station in Kensington. He has since been charged with murder and related offenses in connection with the attack.
On Monday, Harrison's family announced a pending lawsuit in Common Pleas Court alleging Macy's and other entities connected to the building failed to take measures to prevent the stabbing. The civil lawsuit will be filed once documents the family's attorneys requested are received.
"Safety and security failures gave rise to criminal opportunity," Eric Zajac, one of the family's attorneys, said Tuesday at a press conference.
At the time of the stabbing, then-interim Philadelphia Police Commissioner John Stanford said the Macy's at 13th and Market streets — located inside the historic Wanamaker building — was a frequent target for retail theft. Police received more than 250 reports of theft at that Macy's last year, Stanford said.
"The senseless death for someone like Eric Harrison, sadly, was probably just a matter of time," Zajac said. "It should never have come to this but it has."
Initial reports from police indicated that Harrison may have been involved in the first encounter with Tunnell at Macy's, but his mother, Dawn Fobbs, said Tuesday that her son did not have any contact with Tunnell prior to the stabbing.
Harrison was working two jobs at the time of his death, his mother said. He had gone to his shift at Macy's early on the morning he died after working an overnight shift sorting mail for the U.S. Postal Service.
Eric Coates, Harrison's father, lamented that Tunnell was initially able to leave the store without facing consequences for attempting to steal from Macy's.
"How do you make sense of that?" Coates said. "I truly believe this tragedy could have been prevented if proper protocols were in place. Our son would have still been here. We were robbed of grandchildren, we (were) robbed to see the full transformation of the man (Harrison) was in the process of becoming."
Coates also praised state lawmakers and Gov. Josh Shapiro for the recent passage of a law that toughens criminal penalties for shoplifting.
As part of the lawsuit, the family's attorneys have requested information related to the investigation into the incident, including surveillance video and security assessments of the property.
"We were hired ... to get some answers to some very important, very good questions and to hold accountable those who share responsibility for those safety and security failures," Zajac said. "Failures that contributed to the death of Eric Harrison.”
The family's attorneys said they are looking to obtain monetary damages, including lost wages.
In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Macy's declined to comment on the litigation.
"We remain heartbroken about the tragedy that took place at Macy's Center City," a Macy's spokesperson said. "Our hearts go out to the Harrison family during this difficult time."
