Businesses with bulletproof glass in Detroit are now forbidden from locking patrons inside a store after a gunman shot three people, one of them fatally, at a gas station in May 2023.
The Detroit City Council unanimously approved the measure Tuesday to prohibit “the unlawful restraint of a patron against their will,” the amended ordinance states.
“The goal of this ordinance is to ensure that we keep the threat outside of the convenience store, gas station, liquor stores or party stores,” Councilman James Tate said. “This does not simply apply to gas station convenience stores, but any commercial business that has a cash register behind a bulletproof glass.”
The amended ordinance follows the shooting death of Gregory Karlos Samuel Fortner-Kelly, a Detroiter who was locked inside a Mobil gas station after the clerk locked the door to prevent a shoplifter from leaving at about 3 a.m. on May 6, 2023.
The gunman, Samuel McCray, was accused of trying to steal $3.80 worth of merchandise. He was charged with shooting three people in all after he was stuck inside the gas station.
The store clerk, Al-Hassan Aiyash, was charged with involuntary manslaughter in May 2023.
According to the new ordinance, “It shall be unlawful for a business operator of an establishment with any bulletproof protective barrier separating a business operator from patrons to knowingly restrain a patron from leaving the establishment, using any remote door locking technology.”
Anyone who violates the ordinance faces a misdemeanor charge.
Tate says the ordinance ensures that store clerks cannot lock people inside an establishment against their will.
“If there is someone else in that location that is unlawfully detained, if they say, ‘Let me out,’ they have to let them out. Period,” Tate said.
