The incident came to light when Zoe Marks, a Seattle native and lecturer in African studies at Edinburgh University who’s visiting in Oakland, posted Facebook and Twitter accounts of what she described as a “horrific” incident.

The Oakland Police Department told SF Weekly on Friday afternoon that they are “investigating an assault that occurred on September 3, 2015, at 9:42PM, at Bay and Harrison Street”, and that the victim is in stable condition at a local hospital.

Marks said the guard slammed the shopper against a concrete pillar outside the store and placed him in a chokehold unto he passed out.

Marks said in an interview Friday that the incident appeared to begin when the man had some difficulty buying groceries with an electronic benefit card, or EBT – a form of payment issued to food stamp recipients.

Krauss later confirmed that the security guard, who remains anonymous, had been “permanently removed” from Whole Foods Market. She also took graphic photos of the man lying facedown on the pavement outside the store.

“Instead of medical care your staff locked him out, lying unconscious in a pool of his own blood while horrified fellow customers demanded calls to the paramedics and shouted they would NEVER shop at Whole Foods Oakland again”, she wrote. “We are investigating this immediately”, Whole Foods tweeted back. “Whole Foods needs to be held accountable – security is NOT selective, it is collective”, she added. But several social media commenters prompted a response from company officials on the Whole Foods Facebook page on Friday.

In a statement to KPIX 5, Whole Foods spokeswoman, Beth Krauss said: “Last night at our Oakland store, there was an altercation that escalated to violence”. She is also a charter member and editor for one of the Rotary worldwide clubs, Dhaka Royal. “(We) felt safe until the security guard attacked him”. “Whereas we transfer swiftly to collect the information, we need to make it clear that Entire Meals Market takes a zero-tolerance strategy to violence”, the spokeswoman advised the Oakland Tribune. “The actions of the security guard were completely contrary to our policies and values, which is why the firm is being replaced”.