7-Eleven Workers in Viral Beating of Alleged Shoplifter Won’t Face Criminal Charges: DA

Prosecutors will not charge two 7-Eleven employees in California who took matters into their own hands by holding down and striking an alleged shoplifter with a stick in a beatdown that went viral.

“The Stockton 7-11 Store Clerks are not & have never been suspects of the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office,” District Attorney Ron Freitas said in a statement posted on Facebook Tuesday. “Any investigation going forward is to hold accountable the individual who threatened & attempted to rob them.”

At a hearing Wednesday for the suspect, Tyrone Frazier, a spokesman for the district attorney addressed why the clerks would not face charges at the hearing.

"As you guys saw on video, [Frazier] motioned to his belt and said he had a gun," spokesman Lee Neve said, CBS13 in Sacramento reported. "So they obviously were fearful for their lives."

Frazier, 41, is accused of a number of thefts at the Stockton convenience store where he loaded cigarettes and Vape pens into a garbage bag and demanded money from the clerks while allegedly armed.

The suspect was caught on video when he returned to the store in the early morning of July 29 and once again began emptying the store shelves into a bag moments before the clerks intervened. The footage showed one of the clerks pinning him down while another beat Frazier with a stick.

Stockton police eventually arrested Frazier Monday when he returned to the 7-Eleven again.

At his court appearance, a judge ordered Frazier to undergo a mental evaluation and assigned him a public defender. Asked if he understood his rights, Frazier responded: "I was asleep," according to the outlet.

Frazier's next hearing is scheduled for September.