30 Lethal Force Incidents Involving Private Security in 48 Hours
Charlotte NC January 4 2019
Just 48 hours into a new year and private security officers have already been engaged in thirty lethal force incidents leaving eight people dead, including a security officer.
Security officers fatally shot five people as the New Year day was being celebrated by millions of people across the country.
Three others were shot and killed during armed confrontations on the second day of the new year.
Security officers in Miami and the Atlanta area fatally shot armed robbers.
In one incident, a man entered a liquor store in DeKalb County Georgia, a close suburb of Atlanta, armed with a handgun and demanding cash.
An off-duty Pine Lake Police officer working security for the store confronted the man firing several shots that fatally wounded him.
In Decatur Georgia, a city inside DeKalb County, another security officer also was involved in a lethal force incident when he approached several men shooting in the air at The Woods of Decatur apartment complex off of Whites Mills Road.
He followed the men toward an apartment building when they began shooting at him.
Police were called in and arrested both men.
A security officer on foot patrol in the entertainment district of Memphis Tennessee stopped to assist a distraught woman.
A man then used a steak knife to attack the security officer who was talking to his girlfriend on Beale Street.
Antonio Spencer, reportedly became angry because the two were talking and pulled out a steak knife. That’s when Spencer allegedly charged the security officer, who was able to get out of the way without being hurt.
Spencer then allegedly slapped his girlfriend before being subdued and detained by other security officers and turned over to Memphis police who filed numerous charges against him.
In Henderson Nevada, at the Green Valley Ranch Resort a confrontation between armed security and an armed guest ended in a fatal shooting.
According to Lt. Kirk Moore with Henderson police, the shooting occurred after a guest at the hotel told security that an armed male was walking toward the hotel’s lobby.
Three security guards, two of which were armed, confronted the suspect inside the east tower lobby where they engaged in a verbal exchange.
When the suspect allegedly produced a handgun, the two armed security officers used deadly force and fatally shot the suspect, according to Lt. Moore.
Lt. Moore says that the situation was contained very quickly by casino security and that no other injuries were reported as a result of the incident. Investigators are still unsure what caused the confrontation to escalate to violence.
Another fatal shooting involving an armed security officer was the result of a man being ejected from a Houston nightclub. The man returned with a handgun and was fatally shot.
In Dallas Texas, two other nightclub security guards fired a total of twenty rounds at a man in a pick-up who was trying to leave the parking lot after a confrontation.
After reviewing surveillance video, police charged the two security officers with murder.
Naples Florida police arrested a man at a nightclub there after he pulled a knife on a security officer and threatened him.
Joandy Lorenzogarcia, 24, of Golden Gate, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with intent to commit a felony and disorderly conduct Satuat Noodles Italian Cafe & Sushi Bar in North Naples.
A Washington DC man threatened to shoot a security officer after being told to leave a business. The armed security officer pulled his weapon and the man fled. Police searched the area but no arrests were made.
A Huntsville Alabama female security officer engaged a man armed with an AK-47 after he was ejected from the property for fighting at a nightclub. He returned from his vehicle shooting toward the security officer and she fired several rounds striking him in him in his leg. He fled but was later arrested by police at a community hospital.
