Four people stabbed at Hunt Valley shopping center, attacker shot dead by police
Baltimore County MD Sept 30 2019
A man with a hunting knife stabbed four people and beat one at the shops of Hunt Valley Towne Centre Saturday afternoon before he was shot and killed by officers, Baltimore County Police say.
Three people were attacked inside Hunt Valley Wine Liquor & Beer and a fourth person was stabbed outside a nearby store, police said.
A fifth person was wounded on the patio of the Noodles & Company restaurant.
All five victims were hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening, police spokeswoman Jennifer Peach said.
Police had initially said five people had been stabbed but revised that number late Saturday night after reviewing video footage and interviewing witnesses.
The attacks came on a warm Saturday afternoon, and families said they were shocked by the violence at suburban mall, a place of boutique shops and restaurants. Behind the liquor store, a manager turned away customers, telling them some of the staff had been hurt.
Mall security guards encountered the man before the attacks, Peach said.
Security guards escorted him out of the liquor store and off the mall property.
By about 1:30 p.m., however, he was back in the liquor store and tensions had escalated. Peach said the man was aggressive, demanding money and brandishing a knife with a three-inch blade.
After the stabbings at the liquor store and Noodles & Company, police said he ran to Shawan Road and encountered officers at the busy intersection of McCormick Road, an entrance to the mall.
“He was armed with a knife and our officers were forced to discharge their weapons. That resulted in a critical injury to the suspect,” Peach said. “He has since been pronounced deceased.”
Baltimore County police identified the man as Jamaal Ramone Taylor, 31, of the 6000 block of Amberwood Road in Northeast Baltimore.
Peach said an off-duty emergency medical services captain was at the shopping center at the time and aided victims until emergency crews arrived.
Police are gathering body camera video and surveillance footage in an investigation of the stabbings and the officer-involved shooting. They did not identify the officer or officers who fired or say how many shot.
The investigators are also working with state transit police to determine whether the man with the knife was also behind a stabbing earlier Saturday at the Upton Metro station in Baltimore. Paul Shepard, spokesman for the Maryland Transit Administration, said someone was stabbed at the West Baltimore station. He did not have further details Saturday night.
“We’re working with Baltimore County to determine whether it was connected,” he said.
Alicyn Ames, a spokeswoman for Greenberg Gibbons, which owns the mall, said on-site security first responded to escort the man away, then called county police when he returned. She referred further questions to police.
“We’re really glad and relieved there were no life-threatening injuries to our guests,” Ames said.
In Hunt Valley, one shopper, who requested anonymity out of concern for her safety because she witnessed some of what happened, said she saw a man sitting on the back of an ambulance and bleeding from his stomach as she and her daughter left the nearby DSW store.
“I thought, initially, he had been hit by the light rail,” she said. “As we’re walking to [our] car, through the parking lot, we see all of these emergency vehicles come up.”
The witness and her young daughter got to their car and drove, turning right out of the lot onto Shawan Road.
While heading to the nearby Executive Plaza to pick up her husband and son, she saw about seven police officers surrounding a man in the four-lane road opposite the median from her.
“The suspect’s clearly not cooperating because he’s walking super slow and not following whatever he’s being told,” she said. When the man reached the corner of Shawan and McCormick roads, near the Executive Plaza, she heard three to six gunshots and saw him drop to the ground.
Later Saturday afternoon, police tape cordoned off the liquor store and the shops beside it. The stores had all closed. The customers came and left.
Outside the liquor store, a woman told the manager she would be praying for the people there.
Baltimore Sun
