The Cook County Medical Examiner has ruled the death of an alleged shoplifter who struggled with a security guard at a Lakeview grocery store late last year was a homicide.
Police allegedly found 55-year-old Eugenio Escriba Guzman unresponsive, handcuffed, and lying on a crate in the store’s security office on the evening before Thanksgiving 2019. Minutes earlier, Guzman struggled with a security guard and other employees who tried to stop him for allegedly stealing toiletries, according to police.
CPD officers began administering CPR, but fire department personnel later pronounced him dead at the store, 3531 North Broadway.
Now, the medical examiner has determined that Guzman died from hypertensive cardiovascular disease with “stress due to physical restraint” and “methamphetamine toxicity” as secondary causes. The manner of his death is homicide, the medical examiner said.
Guzman’s family filed an eight count civil lawsuit against Jewel in December that seeks more than $400,000 in damages.
