A Baltimore jurors has awarded$ 4.1 million to the home of a man who was shot and , killed in 2022 by a security guard at a Royal Farms , in Southwest Baltimore.
With its ruling Tuesday, the judge found safety guard Kanisha Spence and her employer, Maximum Protective Services Security Investigations, LLC, criminal in the unjust death of 26- year- ancient Marquise Powell.
” The jury determined that not only did Ms. Spence unjustly shoot and shoot Marquise, but that Maximum failed to properly teach her, failed to properly animal her history, and never should have hired her or continued to use her”, said prosecutors Andrew O’Connell, Malcolm Ruff, Ronald Richardson and Nikoletta Mendrinos, who represented Powell’s house, in a statement.
In a verbal encounter on October 30, 2022, Spence shot Powell in the face in the Royal Farms entrance. Powell died at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma six weeks after being shot at the store, located in the 1800 wall of Washington Boulevard, which is in Baltimore’s Carroll Park area.
Maximum Protective Services ‘ prosecutor, who was reached by telephone, declined to comment on the court’s decision. Spence’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment right away.
A distinct Baltimore jury , in August found Spence guilty , of second- education death and use of a rifle in a crime of violence. A prosecutor in February , sentenced her to 60 years in prison, the utmost sentence. Online court documents show Spence, 45, appealed her judgment.
Spence also admitted to making a false statement on a request to purchase a gun and perjury for making a false affirmation on a request to law enforcement for the permit to carry the cannon, maintaining that she is innocent but acknowledging the prosecution has enough information to get a judgment.
One of the several people killed by security guards in Baltimore at the same time gave rise to Maryland’s effort last year to overhaul state oversight of the once sparsely regulated field of private security. On June 1, a law passed that increased the number of security guards in Maryland who are required to have insurance coverage, training, and licenses became effective.
Previously, only guards who worked for private security companies, like Spence, had to be licensed by Maryland State Police. Guards who worked directly for the likes of grocery stores and retailers were not required to obtain licenses. Security guards of any kind were exempt from any kind of training unless they applied for a handgun, which would require safety courses for anyone who wanted to obtain such a license.
Around 2: 45 a. m. on Oct. 30, 2022, Powell, his sister and girlfriend stopped at the Royal Farms to buy some chicken and refuel their car after going to a bar following a family Halloween party. After Spence told his sister that the store’s bathroom was closed to customers, Powell and Spence got into a verbal altercation.
As Powell’s argument with Spence continued, his girlfriend and sister intervened, pulling him out of the store. He struggled with them in the glass vestibule.
Spence is seen making a mocking gesture to Powell in a photo included in the family’s wrongful death lawsuit.
Security footage from Spence’s murder trial revealed that the image was captured shortly before Spence opened the door to the vestibule, stepped toward Powell, and fired one shot.
Powell screamed in the background of Spence’s 911 call reporting the shooting, which was also played at her trial, shortly after being shot in close proximity to his sister and girlfriend, who could be heard screaming in the background.
” I’m a security guard at Royal Farms”, Spence told the operator. A man approached me,”. I have a body camera on my body. He was threatening my life”.
As Spence calmly spoke to the 911 operator, expressing little concern for Powell, a Royal Farms employee applied pressure to his head wound.
According to a medical examiner who testified at Spence’s murder trial, the bullet Spence fired struck Powell in the mouth, injured his cerebral vertebrae, and damaged the artery that supplies oxygen to the brain, which eventually caused his brain to stop functioning, before lodging in the back of his neck.
At trial, Spence , claimed she acted in self defense.
Alleging battery, assault, negligent hiring, negligent security and overall negligence, the wrongful death lawsuit said Powell was a father to a young daughter, a beloved brother and son.
” There is a lot wrong with our judicial system, but, fundamentally, it is designed to render justice”, reads the statement from Powell’s family’s attorneys, who are from the firm Murphy, Falcon &, Murphy. We applaud the jury members for allowing justice to prevail because the circumstances of this case demanded it.
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