Dollar General clerk injured after man sprays lighter fluid during dispute

A routine confrontation at a Dollar General in McKinleyville turned into an injury case when a clerk was sprayed with charcoal lighter fluid after telling a customer to leave merchandise behind. Deputies responded at about 12:58 p.m. on June 16 to the store at 1180 Murray Road, where the clerk said the man had previously been banned for theft-related incidents.

According to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, the suspect picked out merchandise, was told to leave, and then grabbed a bottle of charcoal lighter fluid from a shelf as he headed out. When the clerk told him to leave the item behind, the man sprayed the clerk with the fluid. The clerk knocked the container away, and the dispute turned into a physical altercation outside the store. Medical personnel treated the clerk for non-life-threatening injuries.

The sheriff’s office identified the suspect as 29-year-old Trevor Parker of McKinleyville. Deputies said Parker was later booked on suspicion of robbery and assault with a caustic chemical. He was located near Murray Road and U.S. Highway 101 and taken into custody without incident.

For Dollar General workers, the larger lesson is how fast a normal store dispute can become a violent incident that leaves a clerk hurt and the rest of the shift disrupted. OSHA says workplace violence can be reduced with prevention programs, management commitment, worker involvement, worksite analysis, hazard prevention and safety training. The agency also says employees should be trained to de-escalate volatile situations and protect themselves if de-escalation fails.

That matters in stores where staffing is thin and one associate may be expected to juggle checkout, customer questions and security issues at the same time. In a moment like the one on Murray Road, workers need clear direction on when to back away, when to call law enforcement and how to get help fast without trying to physically control the situation themselves.

The McKinleyville case also lands against a broader record of safety pressure on the chain. In July 2024, OSHA announced a corporate-wide settlement with Dollar General and its retail subsidiaries to make workplace safety improvements nationwide. The agency said the company had been cited in 240 inspections since 2017, had accumulated more than $21 million in penalties since then and was added to the Severe Violator Enforcement Program in 2022.

Dollar General’s 2024 safety-audit report says the company operates about 20,000 stores across 48 states and employs more than 180,000 people. A shareholder safety-audit proposal passed with 67.7% of the vote in 2023, signaling that investor concern over store safety has remained high. NIOSH says workplace violence can cause long-term physical and psychological harm, and it reported 20,050 nonfatal workplace violence injuries requiring days away from work in private industry in 2020, along with 392 U.S. worker homicide deaths that year.