Store employee attacks accused shoplifter, leaving him hospitalized, Georgia cops say
DeKalb County Ga July 20 2022 A 25-year-old man is in the hospital after Georgia police say he was attacked by a store employee.
The DeKalb County Police Department says it responded to a call the evening of July 17 at a QuikTrip gas station where they found the victim who said he was hit in the back of the head by an unknown man in the South DeKalb Mall parking lot.
The victim had visible injuries and was taken to a hospital in the area, the department said in a statement.
Officers responded to a separate July 18 call to Stonecrest Mall where they met with the victim’s mother. During the meeting, the victim’s mother told officers her son was actually attacked by a store employee at the mall’s Players Closet.
A video circulated on social media shows the accused employee hitting the victim over the head with a long metal object. The victim’s injuries were so serious they required surgery; his aunt told FOX 5.
“He later had to have surgery on his spine,” she said. “He had to have metal plates put into his head, his neck and a rod down his spine.”
A spokesperson for Players Closet told FOX 5 that before the incident, store surveillance caught the victim shoplifting. When confronted by an employee, the victim threatened the accused employee, saying he had a gun, the spokesperson said.
Urban Retail Properties, the firm that owns Stonecrest Mall, told McClatchy News that the mall is cooperating with law enforcement in the investigation.
We are extremely concerned to hear of this unfortunate incident,” a spokesperson for the company said.