The Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office announced that it would not charge the security guard who was accused of shooting and killing a defiant customer and injuring another customer.
Baltimore City State's Attorney Ivan Bates said in a news release that the decision not to prosecute the security guard was made by the State's Attorney's Office run by former City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby but that her office caused "unnecessary trauma" to the victim's family by failing to notify them.
On July 13, 2021, Baltimore City Police were sent to the Giant grocery store at 6640 Reisterstown Road for a report of a shooting inside the store. Once there, officers found Nicholas Lee in the meat section of the store shot multiple times in the chest.
Police also found a woman with a single gunshot wound to her left hand.
According to the news release, the security officer, Titus Ninneh, confronted Lee as he tried to enter the store. Lee was not wearing a shirt.
Lee and his female companion continued to walk toward the meat section.
Ninneh followed both to the meat section, where he again asked Lee to put on a shirt or leave the store.
The woman stepped in between Lee and Ninneh and escalated the conversation. A fight broke out, where the woman struck Ninneh with a package of meat and was punched by Lee.
According to the State's Attorney's office, Lee put the security guard into a chokehold, got him to the ground and tried to reach for his gun.
That's when Ninneh fired his weapon. Ninneh stood up and fired his weapon at Lee, hitting him.
Lee would die at Sinai Hospital.
"While a security guard is not held to the same legal standards as a sworn police officer, it is clear that Mr. Ninneh's actions would not be found criminal in nature in a court of law," said State's Attorney Ivan J. Bates in a news release. "From our review of the previous administration's investigation, we found that my predecessor and her executive team consulted a use of force expert in 2021, received the results from the expert in 2022, held multiple internal briefings, and were advised by their own ASAs to decline charges in the matter. Although they decided not to prosecute, it seems they did not fulfill their duty to notify the family despite repeated requests. This delay, unfortunately, causes more unnecessary trauma to the victim's family. It is truly a tragedy that such a petty dispute resulted in this loss of life and that so much violence was experienced in broad daylight at a bustling business in our community."