White Marsh Mall Mob: Councilwoman Proposes Changing MTA Schedule

NOTTINGHAM, MD — After a mob outside the White Marsh Mall over the weekend resulted in nine arrests, including one for assaulting a police officer, Councilwoman Cathy Bevins is pushing for change. She has been talking with the mall leaders as well as transportation officials about ways to ensure what transpired Saturday night does not happen again.

Police said that a group of young adults and juveniles had been leaving the White Marsh Mall on Saturday night after a fight in the bathroom near the food court.

When mall security, including a Baltimore County police officer working secondary employment for the mall, ordered the group to leave, officials said one teen refused and upon being informed he would be arrested for trespassing, put his hands behind his back.

As police were arresting him, authorities said a crowd of young people surrounded the officers and began yelling to spur further chaos; and after orders to back up and disperse were disregarded, one of the officers released pepper spray into the air. More than 30 officers were called to bring order to the area, where members of the crowd began blocking traffic and attempting to mob The Avenue at White Marsh nearby. Police said nine people were arrested for disorderly conduct. Two were adults, one of whom authorities said took a swing at a police officer who had asked him to leave the White Marsh Mall property.

"This is unacceptable and I’m acting quickly!" Bevins said in a statement the day after the melee. "I have a meeting scheduled with the White Marsh Precinct in the morning and [Councilman] David Marks will also be attending."

Suggested Bevins: "Maybe it’s time we follow the policies at Towson [Town Center], where no juveniles are allowed in the mall without adult supervision after 5?"

In September 2016, the Towson mall implemented a curfew for those under 18 years of age. After 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, those 17 and younger are required to be accompanied by at someone who is at least 21. One adult can escort up to four youths.

The Towson mall instituted the curfew policy about nine months after an officer was hit by a rock outside the shopping center when a large group of youths gathered outside after the mall closed.

After relaying to mall officials this week that "people were fearful," White Marsh Mall personnel assured her: "They'll beef up their security a little bit more inside the mall, outside the mall," Bevins told Fox 45.

• White Marsh Mall Mob: Police ID 2 Adults Charged
• 9 Arrested In White Marsh Mall Disturbance
• Towson Mall Sets Curfew for Teens on Weekends

Since the two adults charged in Saturday's disturbance in White Marsh came from Baltimore City and police said the group traveled to the mall by public bus, some said that public transportation was a factor.

"Ever since the MTA started coming to White Marsh, it’s been more of a crime issue," one Perry Hall Patch reader said on Facebook.

Bevins told Fox 45 she wrote a letter to the Maryland Transit Administration asking for a reconsideration of its bus schedule, calling for more stops at the mall and requesting bus service conclude by 11 p.m. there.

"If you keep the buses coming more frequently, then maybe kids won't be hanging around the outside of the mall," Bevins told the news station.

The buses currently run to White Marsh Mall until 1:30 a.m.

What do you think would improve public safety at White Marsh Mall? Tell us in the comments!

File photo by Elizabeth Janney.