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Accused shoplifter, store security guard exchange gunfire, MD cops say. Both are dead

In Maryland, a woman, an accused shoplifter and a grocery store security guard shot at each other, cops say. Both dead from the shooting.
In Maryland, a woman, an accused shoplifter and a grocery store security guard shot at each other, cops say. Both dead from the shooting. Getty Images/iStockphoto

A woman accused of shoplifting by a security guard began shooting at him and he returned fire in a grocery store in Maryland, police say.

Now both are dead.

Officers were called around 10:25 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 4 to a shooting at a Giant Food grocery store in Oxon Hill where they found the security guard and woman wounded by gunfire, according to a statement shared by the Prince George’s County Police Department in Maryland.

The security guard was dead when police arrived, and the woman was taken to a nearby hospital where she died, police say.

An investigation revealed the security guard confronted the woman while she was stealing an unspecified item at the store, Police Maj. Zachary O’Lare said during a news conference.

In response, the woman pulled a handgun from her backpack and began shooting at the man, O’Lare said. Then he shot back at her.

No one else was injured in the shooting, according to O’Lare.

“Quite concerning that these brazen acts are occurring across the country and in our backyard,” O’Lare told reporters.

The identities of the security guard and woman were not specified at the conference.

Police said more information on the shooting will be released in a statement.

In July 2021, a Giant Food security guard shot and killed a man and woman at one of its Baltimore locations following a physical altercation, WBAL TV reported. Few details were released about the matter.

Oxon Hill is about 60 miles southwest of Baltimore.

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This story was originally published November 4, 2022 at 1:45 PM with the headline "Accused shoplifter, store security guard exchange gunfire, MD cops say. Both are dead."

Julia Marnin
McClatchy DC
Julia Marnin covers courts for McClatchy News, writing about criminal and civil affairs, including cases involving policing, corrections, civil liberties, fraud, and abuses of power. As a reporter on McClatchy’s National Real-Time Team, she’s also covered the COVID-19 pandemic and a variety of other topics since joining in 2021, following a fellowship with Newsweek. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, she was raised in South Jersey and is now based in New York State.
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