Security officer shoots at man to thwart robbery

Special police are security officers commissioned by the city or state to arrest people within certain areas, and police were working to verify the officer's status.

One man was apprehended by a city police detective who was in the area, and police were searching for a second man.

The crime scene stretched from the supermarket parking lot, through a gas station, and to the busy intersection of E. Northern Parkway and Loch Raven Boulevard. Shoppers, who were potential witnesses, were blocked from leaving the shopping center as more than a dozen detectives investigated. Many grumbled that they had picked a bad time to run errands.

"How long does a chicken keep in a hot car?" one asked.

A woman, who did not want to give her name because she witnessed part of the incident, said she saw a "pudgy" white man with a heavy knit mask over his face run from the liquor store, as what looked like an undercover police officer gave chase. She said he pulled the mask off as a car squealed out of the parking lot.

Another woman who was inside the Mars supermarket said he store employees rushed to the front of the store and yelled, "Don't kill him, don't kill him."

Police said nearby Mercy High School was placed on lockdown as a precaution but has since reopened.