Mall Security

I was eating at the McDonald's at Columbia mall and was disrupted by a group of young kids fighting. My concern is that this was not just two kids fighting but a group of kids with a fighting mentality that could potentially endanger the other patrons there. Now I have seen this type of behavior happen many times before and it always happens around the McDonald's restaurant on Friday and Saturday evenings. The first thing I would suggest you do is have more security at the McDonald's because things always seem to start there and then move upstairs, which is potentially dangerous because the crowd grows larger.

The murder trial began Tuesday for a man accused in a retaliatory gang shooting outside Towson Town Center at the height of the holiday shopping season in 2011. Tyrone Chester Brown Jr. allegedly shot 19-year-old Rodney Pridget, as part of his initiation into the Black Guerrilla Family gang. But as Brown appeared in Baltimore County Circuit Court two days before his 21st birthday, his lawyers questioned whether the state has any evidence that ties him to the scene. Pridget had been at the mall shopping for presents with his girlfriend.

LOS ANGELES -- Members of a suburban Van Nuys Girl Scout troop who showed up for a shopping trip at the Northridge Fashion Square were at first denied entry by security officials enforcing a policy designed to prevent gang violence.Mall officials say the guards were just doing their jobs, but the leader of Troop 823 said Wednesday that the scouts deserved an apology."We were stopped at the door and [told] we could not enter because we were a gang," said troop leader Lois Young."The guard said a group with more than three people was a gang.

I was eating at the McDonald's at Columbia mall and was disrupted by a group of young kids fighting. My concern is that this was not just two kids fighting but a group of kids with a fighting mentality that could potentially endanger the other patrons there. Now I have seen this type of behavior happen many times before and it always happens around the McDonald's restaurant on Friday and Saturday evenings. The first thing I would suggest you do is have more security at the McDonald's because things always seem to start there and then move upstairs, which is potentially dangerous because the crowd grows larger.

To harried, last-minute holiday shoppers, security guards at the Cranberry Mall in Westminster seem to be everywhere. Uniformly dressed in black, they answer even routine questions with a snappy, "Yes, ma'am!" or "No, sir!"According to Aaron Coleman, the mall's 30-year-old director of security, it's all part of the image he wants to project.He preaches high visibility, communication, education, community outreach and customer service as much as crime prevention."It's a highly proactive, innovative and aggressive approach that most mall security agencies are using, but we want to take it a step farther," he said.

Rodney Pridget and his girlfriend were unaware they were being followed as they stopped at Build-A-Bear Workshop, Nordstrom and other stores at a crowded Towson Town Center Mall six days before Christmas. But as they left the mall, a man vying to become a member of the Black Guerrilla Family gang in North Baltimore fired six shots and killed the 19-year-old Pridget, according to prosecutors. The prosecution of the men accused in the shooting has shed light on an incident that shook holiday patrons in the Baltimore County seat and illustrated how violence from a city gang dispute can spill into a busy suburban mall.

The murder trial began Tuesday for a man accused in a retaliatory gang shooting outside Towson Town Center at the height of the holiday shopping season in 2011. Tyrone Chester Brown Jr. allegedly shot 19-year-old Rodney Pridget, as part of his initiation into the Black Guerrilla Family gang. But as Brown appeared in Baltimore County Circuit Court two days before his 21st birthday, his lawyers questioned whether the state has any evidence that ties him to the scene. Pridget had been at the mall shopping for presents with his girlfriend.

MANY merchants feel shoppers will go where they feel safest. In an effort to get the shopper into the malls, the Governor's Executive Advisory Council recently held a conference on security programs for mall merchants. "Operation Safe Shopper" produced a three-page list of tips and techniques for improving mall security.The list begins with the obvious: "Always lock doors," and "Conceal valuables." It then proceeds to stress several useful ideas, such as letting the public know that undercover officers are present at the malls.

Baltimore County police were searching today for a 3-year-old girl reported missing last night when her mother was shopping at the Montgomery Ward store in Security Square Mall.Police said Darntrell Griffin, 21, of the 900 block of Homestead St., was shopping in the store's appliances section with her boyfriend around 7:30 p.m. when she suddenly noticed her daughter, Shante Denise Harris, was missing.When last seen, the child was wearing a black and white polka dot top, pink sweat pants, black, red and white tennis shoes and had white clips in her hair.

County police Lt. Gary Barr went to Marley Station Mall for a new pair of Docksiders; instead he ended up with two armed robbers and $1.3 million in jewelry.And for those actions, Barr, along with Officers Gordon Merritt, Joseph Hatcher, Steven Saffield, Kyle Starghill and Kevin Tribull, were awarded the county police's Silver Star.Barr, who was off-duty April 30 when two jewelry stores in the mall were robbed simultaneously, heard the call from mall security officers and followed the suspects out of the mall parking lot and into a residential neighborhood across the street.

Rodney Pridget and his girlfriend were unaware they were being followed as they stopped at Build-A-Bear Workshop, Nordstrom and other stores at a crowded Towson Town Center Mall six days before Christmas. But as they left the mall, a man vying to become a member of the Black Guerrilla Family gang in North Baltimore fired six shots and killed the 19-year-old Pridget, according to prosecutors. The prosecution of the men accused in the shooting has shed light on an incident that shook holiday patrons in the Baltimore County seat and illustrated how violence from a city gang dispute can spill into a busy suburban mall.

Anne Arundel County police are investigating the death of a woman found early Sunday slumped in a car parked near the Anne Arundel Community College satellite building in Hanover, not far from Arundel Mills mall. Fire Department rescue crews responding to the 5:30 a.m. call from Arundel Mills mall security officers found an African-American woman who appeared to be in her early 20s in the vehicle near 7009 Arundel Mills Circle and determined she was dead, police said. Police said they saw no obvious signs of foul play.

ISSUE: -- After a teenager killed eight people and then himself in a Nebraska mall, local malls are trying to send a message that their shopping centers are safe. Cpl. Mark Shawkey, a spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Police Department, said the shooting didn't prompt additional policing efforts. "It's heightened their awareness," Shawkey said of the officers and security guards who patrol shopping centers. "They're more in tune and will be on the lookout for those types of things, especially groups congregating in the food court and other parts of the mall."

Mall owners know that shoppers are unsettled by purse snatchings and other petty crimes and government warnings that malls are easy terrorism targets. And then this week there was a madman shooter who took nine lives at a Nebraska mall. As retailers try to lure shoppers to their stores during the critical holiday season, which can account for as much as 40 percent of sales, malls are also trying to send a message that they're safe. Owners and industry experts say that the nation's 1,200 malls have more protection than ever.

Members of a committee formed to study security at Baltimore County shopping centers said yesterday that they will discuss alternatives to provisions in a new law requiring security cameras, and will present those suggestions to the County Council as soon as possible. The committee, including representatives of the county Police Department, the business community and the Chamber of Commerce, met for the first time yesterday, giving members of the chamber another opportunity to raise concerns about the law, passed by the County Council in March.

Tuesday night's fatal shooting outside Owings Mills mall prompted questions yesterday about mall security and whether the incident would scare off shoppers during the last week of the crucial Christmas shopping season. By most appearances, however, it was business as usual. The mall's food court was standing-room-only yesterday afternoon, and many shoppers said they were unaware that an 18-year-old Eldersburg youth had been killed in the parking lot the night before. "Oh, man," said Corey Chester of Owings Mills.

Arrest leads to charges in Va. car theft caseThe arrest Monday of two men for allegedly trying to shoplift electronic equipment from a store at Annapolis Mall may help solve a Virginia car theft case, county police said yesterday.Officers said they found identification belonging to one of the men arrested in a 1995 Toyota 4-Runner parked on the mall lot. The vehicle was reported stolen from Springfield Toyota in Springfield, Va., police said.Michael T. Huber, a security officer at Montgomery Ward, saw two men come in the store about 9:30 p.m. One took a $200 videocassette recorder and tried to leave through the Electric Avenue exit without paying for it, but mall security officers stopped both men at the door, police said.

Two diamond engagement rings worth $9,500 were stolen from Kay Jewelers in Annapolis Mall Monday, county police said.Tracie R. Brown, 22, a store employee, told police a man walked into the store about 8: 40 p.m. and asked to examine with a gem scope two 1-carat rings with gold bands.The man grabbed the rings and fled into the mall entrance of Hecht's department store.Mall security was alerted but did not apprehend the man, police said.Pub Date: 2/20/97

A Laurel mother is suing The Mall in Columbia and a store that sells educational toys, claiming that store employees and mall security guards targeted her and two teen-age boys for suspected shoplifting because they are black.The lawsuit, filed last week in Howard County Circuit Court, says that Sandra Allen, her 14-year-old son and his friend were eating at the mall Dec. 21, 1995. Afterward, her son and the friend went into the Learningsmith store.As the boys were leaving, they were stopped by Learningsmith employees and mall security guards, who told the boys to empty their pockets and open their jackets, the lawsuit says.

At The Mall in Columbia, where security ranges from guards to alarms to motion detectors, someone found a new way to break into two stores this weekend -- by punching out the back walls.Police believe the same individual or group broke into Structure and Foot Locker Saturday night or Sunday morning by cutting holes in their back walls.Usually, "they force a back door," said Sgt. Morris Carroll, the Howard County police spokesman. "These are the first of this kind."Officials believe $753 was taken from a register at Structure, a men's clothing store.