BALTIMORE, Md. — A shooting at the Royal Farms store in the 1800 block of Washington Boulevard in the wee hours of the morning Sunday has left a man dead, and the security guard who allegedly shot him facing a series of charges.
According to charging documents, the security guard, 43-year-old Kanisha Spence, ordered the man to leave not once, but twice after he became frustrated and belligerent, and shot him in the head when he returned to the store for the third time.
“Well, Number One, she’s a female,” said Jamie Lamartin, who frequents the store, “Number Two, if she’s a security guard protecting the property, her first commitment is to secure the property.”
Court records suggest 26-year-old Marquise Powell was in the company of a woman and they left the store when ordered to the first time, but when he returned, Spence pointed her nine millimeter Glock semi-automatic handgun at him several times before he exited again.
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When he returned again, his female companion tried to restrain him in the front of the store, when Spence allegedly advanced towards him, reached out with her weapon and shot him.
When detectives interviewed the security guard following the shooting, she said she became scared when Powell lunged at her.
But police found no evidence of that, only Spence closing the space between them before delivering a head shot.
Still, in the court of public opinion, some will defend the security guard’s actions.
“The person shouldn’t have come in there a third time,” said Lamartin, “He saw that she was a security guard so he was kind of asking for it. I’m sorry he got shot in the head, but people need to learn you just can’t do bad things and get away with it.”
Powell died later in the day at Shock Trauma, a casualty of what started as a war of words.
