Security guard shoots alleged shoplifter near Charles Village Safeway in Baltimore, police say

A security guard shot a man suspected of shoplifting at the Safeway in Baltimore’s Charles Village neighborhood Monday morning, police said.

The shooting happened just after 9 a.m. at the grocery store, at 2401 N. Charles St., said detective Chakia Fennoy, a Baltimore police spokeswoman.

The armed security guard confronted the man and noticed he had what appeared to be a gun, police said. The security guard shot the man in the ankle during a brief struggle, police said.

The suspect suffered non-life threatening injuries, Fennoy added.

Frankie Phillips, 32, who lives near the Safeway, said he saw the suspect “waving something” while in the store. Phillips said the security guard told the suspect to drop his weapon nearly “half a dozen times” but he refused.

When a gun went off, people nearby “completely froze," Phillips said.

“I could see that the whole store was shaken up. Some people did not know where to go or what to do,” he said.