By Benjamin Fearnow
Media Reporter
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An NYPD sergeant filed a lawsuit against Starbucks, saying a potentially career-ending injury occurred due to a Midtown Manhattan store allowing too many "violent" homeless people in its doors.
NYPD Sgt. Timothy Wall told WCBS-TV in New York that a September 28, 2017, scuffle with a "disturbed and violent individual" popped his shoulder out of its socket and continues to cause him daily pain. Wall said the injury wouldn't have occurred if the Starbucks branch stopped serving homeless people free food and creating an unsafe environment. Wall accused the store managers of routinely handing out free food and drinks to drug addicts and people with mental health problems.
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Wall was called to the store last fall over complaints about a disorderly 24-year-old homeless man, Montclair Mobley, who was allegedly making threats and expressing his unhappiness over a croissant given to him by one of the coffee chain's employees.
"He said he wanted to kill everyone at the location," Wall told WCBS-TV. "He went to grab the bag stating he was going to kill everyone… We didn't know what was in the bag, so we couldn't take the risk." Wall's lawsuit claims that some homeless individuals previously urinated from the second floor of the store onto workers.
Wall alleges in the lawsuit, filed in December by his attorney Andrew Carboy, that Mobley was asking for a "time machine" so he could return to earlier in the day when the store managers were allegedly giving out better free food.
Wall added that "assaults" and "drug use in the bathroom" are common at the Starbucks store on the corner of 39th street and 8th avenue. Starbucks has more than 13,000 stores across the U.S. and about 250 in Manhattan alone. Wall, a 10-year NYPD veteran and second-generation officer, said the brief battle attempting to subdue the homeless man has had potentially career-ending consequences.
"I tore my labrum and I have seven anchors in my right shoulder," Wall said. In an interview with the New York Post, Wall added that he needed surgery in February to repair torn shoulder cartilage and he still has to attend physical therapy seven months after the incident. "I want to help people in need as much as anyone else, but I explained to [Starbucks] that there was a time and place to do it."
Starbucks filed response papers in court alleging that the injuries sustained by Wall were part of "culpable conduct" and "assumption of risk" as part of being a police officer. "No free food was provided nor precipitated this incident," the coffee chain's lawyers responded.
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The store has a hired security guard inside that location but that individual was not present on the day in which Wall claims he was assaulted. Wall is currently on desk duty as he continues physical therapy and said the 24-year-old homeless man was released from police custody soon after the incident and was arrested in connection with several more crimes, WCBS reports.
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