Brooklyn’s Kings Plaza mall security failed to stop fight that led to teen’s murder: lawsuit
Brooklyn NY March 7, 2022 A security guard did nothing as a Brooklyn teen got into a vicious fight with a rival at the Kings Plaza mall, failing to intervene in the brawl that escalated into a deadly shooting minutes later, a new lawsuit charges.
The parents of slain 18-year-old Jalil Stewart filed suit in Brooklyn Supreme Court against the mall on Flatbush Ave. after discovering video showing their son getting beaten up in front of the security guard wearing a yellow shirt.
Stewart was gunned down by Lashajuan Glasgow, 18, less than a mile away from the mall on Avenue O near E. 48th St. on Feb. 26, 2021, prosecutors say.
“He’s just standing there. They did nothing. They did nothing,” said Stewart’s mother, Charlene Stewart, 46, of the security guard in the video. “I’ve never seen my son have a one-on-one fight. I’ve never seen him in that manner. I was heartbroken. I’m his mother. I can see that he’s being hurt and I do not like that at all.”
The victim’s family told The News that he was accosted by a group of teens — including Glasgow — in the mall as he bought a smoothie with friends. The group demanded Stewart and his pals hand over their money, prompting the donnybrook. Stewart rolled on the the ground, tussling with others boys as a security guard watched, according to the lawsuit and video. Stewart’s parents identified him as the boy wearing a red shirt in the video.
An onlooker laughed at the beatdown and filmed with her phone.
“Yo the security guard. The security guard has me dying,” says a girl in the video.
Stewart and his friends eventually left the mall, according to the suit, and got in a car. Glasgow is accused of pursuing Stewart and shooting him in the car. The victim was around the corner from his home in Flatlands.
A law enforcement source confirmed the video of the fight is part of the Brooklyn DA’s investigation of Stewart’s murder.
Glasgow was arrested for the killing on April 9, 2021, charged as an adult for the murder though he was underage at the time. He has pleaded not guilty.
Stewart died five days after the shooting at Maimonides Medical Center. He was months away from graduating from James Madison High School. He was interested in architecture and was hoping to make music for his career.
“He was shopping [record] deals,” his father, James Stewart, 47, told The News, adding that his son spent much of his time, including the night before his murder, in the studio making music.
“We only found out after the incident how talented he was,” his father said.
The lawsuit, filed by attorney Ezra Glaser, argues that the mall’s failure to “call for backup to the scene, call police to the scene, or otherwise properly apprehend, disarm, or stem the violent attacks,” led directly to Stewart’s murder.
The court filing names Kings Plaza’s owner, Macerich Management Company, along with Allied Universal Security and Glasgow as defendants along with John and Jane Doe security guards. None have filed responses to the suit.
Macerich and Allied did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Neither did Glasgow’s attorney.
The family bemoaned the sorry state of the mall where the fight broke out, saying they haven’t been back since Stewart’s killing despite the fact that they live nearby.
“There’s robberies. There was a shooting there just a couple weeks back. In the mall, crime is very frequent,” James Stewart said.
The NYPD provided data showing it receives more than 200 complaints associated with the mall each year.
“My son was a great young man with a very bright future ahead of him,” said Charlene Stewart. “His legacy will not be that he went to the mall to get a smoothie and was killed ten minutes later.”
