Increased retail violence worry many privateofficer.com

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Charlotte NC Nov 13 2012Rick McCannCEO-FounderPrivate Officer International

Steven Figgs and his wife Julie were enjoying their strollthrough Towne Mall when they heard what they thought to be fireworks. Butbefore they could look around to see where the sounds had come from, two menrunning full speed ahead pushed by them followed by a police officer.The Figgs were later informed that the man had just shot hisestranged wife who was an employee at the mall.
On Saturday night, at the Southlake Mall in Hobart Indianawhere retailers are gearing up for the holiday season, authorities say thatthree men were involved in a shooting shortly before 6PM sending shoppersrunning in all directions."I just heard a very loud noise," said mallemployee Katie Hancock. "I thought something had fallen, maybe a sign inthe mall or something. But then someone said it was a gunshot, so we got to theback."It began, police say, with an argument about a basketballgame that had been played earlier.One of the teens pulled a gun and fired a single bulletbefore the gun jammed. No one was injured and police and mall security soon hadthe three men in custody.The mall was evacuated and closed for the remainder of thenight.
Investigator Torrance Conrad says that violence in shoppingmalls and big box stores has increased steadily over the past few years thoughthere seems to be no rhyme or reason for it.Most retailers and shopping malls do a good job at providingvisible security and maintaining public safety but the one concern that Conraddoes have is the fact that most security officers are unarmed and often unableto properly respond to serious incidents or protect themselves from them.
Two recent examples of this occurred in WichitaKansas and Amherst New Yorkthis week where loss prevention officers attempted to stop suspectedshoplifters.At a JC Penney in the Towne East Square mall in Wichita, police Sgt. BartBrunscheen said a security agent chased two shoplifting suspects from the storeinto the parking lot.The loss prevention employee and the pair -- a man and awoman in their 30s -- were involved in a scuffle in the parking lot and theemployee was stabbed.Other loss prevention employees and mall customers helpedfind and catch the suspects, Brunscheen said. They were taken into custody.The loss prevention officer was taken to Wesley Medical Center in criticalcondition.And in the Amherstincident, police said that two plainclothes loss prevention agents were stabbedoutside the Boulevard Mall when they tried stopping two women and a man fromshoplifting purses at the Abercrombie & Fitch clothing store.The two male security agents were seriously wounded but werenot believed to be life-threatening, police said, but one of the victimssuffered a 3-inch gash to his neck. The other security officer was stabbed inhis side.Police Lt. Brian Miller said that the unarmed store securityofficers approached the suspected shoplifters and struggled with them and wasstabbed several times.Police are still searching for their assailants.
In Louisville Kentucky, police say that a 46-year-old womanwas shot to death Saturday in her car in the parking lot of a Walmart storenear Hillview, and police said a 44-year-old man who is believed to be thesuspect was found later at McNeely Lake, dead of self-inflicted gunshot wound.Carey Klain, a Louisville Metro Police Departmentspokeswoman, said police think the shooting was a domestic incident, though shecould not disclose their relationship between the suspected shooter and thevictim.Their identities had not been released.The shooting at 12:17 p.m. at the Walmart, 11901 Standiford Plaza Drive,prompted the store to close, and there was heavy traffic as customers left theparking lot.Police believe the victim had been shopping at the Walmartand was loading items into the car when she was shot, Klain said. She was shotonce outside of her car, Klain said.The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.Witnesses told police they saw a man flee the scene in avehicle, and the same vehicle was found at McNeely Lake.The man found dead there also matched witnesses' descriptions, Klain said.
Jerri McManus, a manager at a Marshalls's Department store said she isworried about the increased crime happening at her store and at the malls.Shoplifters now often are armed and willing to fight ratherthan be arrested and when she shops at area malls she sees a lot of teens justhanging around, some fighting, especially on week-ends McManus said.
Police in Panola County, Mississippiare  looking for two men in a daringarmed robbery at the Batesville, Mississippi Walmart which left a couple ofclerks pretty shaken.Police say that two men who were stealing expensive IPadsquickly turned violent when store clerks looked to see what the men were doing.Batesville Police said the men pulled handguns and pointedthem at the clerks before fleeing the store with the stolen merchandise.Detective Captain Paul Shivers said a female Walmartemployee was standing nearby, "She was doing the stocking, heard the noiseand went over there to see what was going on. And she was met with a gun to herhead."Detective Shivers said the armed man then turned his pistolon another female worker who heard the commotion and came to see what was goingon, "It's obvious that they came prepared. They wasn't going to take nofor an answer."Walmart security cameras showed the two men finishing up theirheist, then running down a store aisle and out a back door.Police, anxious to catch these two men, believe they'vealready got a big break in the case.One of the men appears to be have an employee name tag onhis shirt.
Nashville Tennessee police are alsoinvestigating an armed shoplifting at one of their Walmart stores.Police arrested Denise Colon, 27, on Saturday after thealleged incident at the Walmart on Nolensville Pike.According to investigators, Colon stabbed the Walmart security officerwith a screwdriver as she tried to escape with about $100 worth of merchandise.Once in the parking lot, police said, Colon backed her car into another employee.Colonhas a lengthy criminal record which includes plenty of shoplifting charges.Last year, she was arrested after surveillance videoappeared to show her ditching a baby at a Target store on Charlotte Pike.Colonfaces charges including theft and aggravated assault in her latest arrest.The Walmart employee injured in the attack was treated at anarea hospital.
Retail violence has not been limited to customers in recentweeks police say.An employee of a Michigan Toys R Us pointed a handgun at hismanager after being terminated for repeated absences and in Long Island NewYork, police arrested a 50-year-old Long Island man and charged him with tryingto extort $2 million from home improvement retailer Home Depot using pipe bombsplanted in a store in Huntington, NY.
Daniel Sheehan, an employee of the retailer, has beencharged with extortion and use of a destructive device in an alleged plan tocoerce money from the business.Sheehan sent an anonymous ransom letter to the Home Depotstore in Huntingtonin mid-October, warning the store manager that he had hidden a bomb in thestore's lighting department to demonstrate his ability to place the devicewithout being detected. On Oct. 15, law enforcement authorities found anoperational pipe bomb in the Huntington Home Depot's lighting department, movedit to a safe area, and rendered it harmless through a controlled detonation.According to the complaint, a letter warned Home Depot thatif it didn't pay a $2 million ransom, Sheehan would shut down all of HomeDepot's Long Island stores on BlackFriday  --  the day after Thanksgiving  --  bydetonating three pipe bombs, each armed with a pound of roofing nails, in threeseparate Home Depot locations.
Retailers say that sales are down and are anxious about theChristmas shopping season. Many are already slashing prices and planning onstarting Black Friday a day early just to get a jumpstart on holiday businessbut say that they now are worried about the increased violence from shopliftersand customers.