Police are investigating an armed robbery and apparent kidnapping that occurred at a mall over the weekend.
Police say that on Saturday evening, officers responded to the Brunswick Square Mall for disturbances in and around the L.E.A.D. Fest Carnival. During the response, police received a phone call from the nearby SureStay Hotel By Best Western that people were running from the mall because they heard gunshots coming from the area of Habit Burger.
Officers responded to the area and initially found no victims or evidence of a shooting. However, a spent shell casing was located in the parking lot of Habit Burger later in the evening.
Shortly after, a parent approached officers and reported an armed robbery. Three juvenile victims were walking together from Habit Burger when a suspect brandished a handgun and demanded their sneakers. The suspect fled from the area with the victims’ sneakers.
He is described as a black male, approximately fifteen years of age, wearing a ski mask. There were no reported injuries that occurred as a result of the robbery.
Lastly, the police received a report of a female victim yelling that she was being kidnapped. The female was yelling from inside a black pickup truck in the Brunswick Square Mall parking lot.
A check of the area could not locate the suspect vehicle or victim. There were no reports of a missing person or other independent witnesses to the incident.
