"'I know what pushed him over the edge was all the racial stuff that was happening at work,' said his girlfriend, Kristi Hannah.
"'He always felt like he was being discriminated (against) because he was black,' said Jessica Anne Brocuglio, his former girlfriend. 'Basically they wouldn't give him pay raises. He never felt like they accepted him as a hard working person.'
"'Thornton changed jobs a few times because he was not getting raises, Brocuglio said."
I can guess what it was. The effort he put in and the quality of his work wasn't up to par. He probably even mistook professional criticism as being 'bullied.'
Modern businesses generally run more on meritocracy than racism, but every time something like this happens, the stereotype against black employees grows. There are small businesses who would rather shut down and restart under a different name than fire a black man because of all the legal trouble it would generate.
Of course, Thornton was fired for stealing beer, and there was video proof of him doing so. [...]
There you go.