The family of the security guard fatally stabbed inside Macy’s is suing the store

The family of Eric Harrison, the Macy’s security guard who was fatally stabbed at the Center City Macy’s last month, is suing the department store, along with its affiliates, claiming the lack of security and safety measures led to his death.

On Tuesday, just blocks away from the Macy’s where Harrison worked as a loss prevention officer, Harrison’s parents Dawn Fobbs and Eric Coates and their attorneys Eric Zajac and Evan Padilla announced a civil lawsuit against Macy’s Retail Holdings LLC and seven other entities, including the building’s owners, for not having enough security in place to protect their son and to respond to what attorneys said was rampant retail theft and a “safety crisis” in the area.

The suit, filed Monday in Common Pleas Court, will seek damages for Harrison’s death, Zajac said Tuesday. While he did not specify a specific amount being sought, Zajac said he expected the amount would be in the “many millions.”

“Safety and security failures gave rise to criminal opportunity,” said Zajac. “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. Failures that contributed to the death of Eric Harrison.”

Macy’s declined to comment on the civil suit

“We remain heartbroken about the tragedy that took place at Macy’s Center City,” a Macy’s spokesperson said in an email. “Our hearts go out to the Harrison family during this difficult time. Per our policy on pending litigation, we have no additional comments at this time.”

On Dec. 4, Tyrone Tunnell, 30, tried to steal hats from the department store at 13th and Market Streets just before 11 a.m., police said. When security guards confronted him and retrieved the stolen items, he initially left without issue, police said.

Minutes later, Tunnell returned, angered at the confrontation, and approached the two guards, who were both unarmed, police said. After they started arguing, Tunnell brandished a pocket knife and stabbed both men.

Fobbs said Tuesday that her son did not encounter Tunnell before the fatal stabbing.

When officers arrived, they found Harrison, 27, with a laceration to his neck, and the other guard with stab wounds to his face, groin, chest, and back.

Both men were taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where Harrison was pronounced dead.

Tunnell was charged with murder, attempted murder, and related crimes and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing next month.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Coates and Fobbs said something should have been done after security’s initial encounter with Tunnell. Fobbs, who has worked as a retail manager for 20 years, said she often talked to her son about the store’s protocol after previous thefts and theft attempts and wondered if management called police when Tunnell first left the store or if whoever was monitoring security cameras alerted security to him returning minutes later.

“This criminal was caught red-handed stealing petty hats,” said Coates. “They let him go. Free of punishment. Fifteen minutes later he comes back and he does a more heinous crime that took our son’s life and almost took the life of his coworker. How do we make sense of that?”

One of the first steps in the litigation was a request for production of documents from the named defendants, said Padilla, in order to answer key questions the family had about Harrison’s death. The questions include who was responsible for security at the store and why did it take until Harrison’s death to hire a private security company, said Padilla. Additionally, the family is seeking to learn who, if anyone, at the store was having conversations about retail theft in the store and across the city, he said.

The store and Philadelphia as a city has recently faced high rates of retail theft. Last year through Dec. 5, police received nearly 250 reports of the crime at the location of the Macy’s store, according to police statistics.

Arrest rates have not kept pace with the surge.

Last year, 443 people were arrested for retail theft, compared to 1,819 people arrested for the offense in 2013, according to data from the District Attorney’s Office. As of Monday, eight people have been arrested for retail theft across the city in 2024, according to data from the District Attorney’s Office.

Rampant theft and crime across Philadelphia and the “open secret” that shoplifting often goes unpunished created a dangerous environment for shoppers and employees, said Zajac. Macy’s, property owners, and managers had an obligation to protect shoppers and employees like Harrison amid the crisis, said Zajac.

Two days after Harrison’s death, the three-floor store reopened, with what appeared to be additional security in place, including two guards posted at a side entrance. And a number of uniformed Philadelphia police officers were on hand to bolster security, a Macy’s spokesperson previously said.

For the slain guard’s family, the added security was a far-too-late response to a fatal event.

“The fundamental question here is why did Eric Harrison have to die on the floor of the Macy’s for them to institute proper security measures,” said Padilla. “This didn’t happen in a vacuum and this was something that was bound to happen.”

Harrison’s family, who called him Lil E or Dizzle, remembered Harrison as a kind and loving man, with a passion for sneakers and fashion and who loved sports, especially the Eagles.

He was hardworking, his family said, working two full-time jobs — first, he would sort mail overnight at the U.S. Postal Service on Byberry Road in the Northeast, then drive down to help open the Macy’s.

But mostly, his parents said Tuesday, Harrison was a good man, a “gentleman” who’d hold the door open for his elders and greet customers with a smile. Coates said it was impossible to find anyone that had anything negative to say about his son.

“He was that young man that I think the world thinks doesn’t exist anymore,” said Fobbs.”That’s who my son was.”