Baltimore Police: Trio of teenagers arrested following shoplifting attempt gone awry
BALTIMORE -- Police arrested three teenagers after they allegedly assaulted employees at a store during a shoplifting attempt gone wrong on Tuesday.
A 15-year-old girl, a 16-year-old boy, and a 17-year-old girl entered a business in the 900 block of North Caroline Street and attempted to steal from it, according to authorities.
Employees confronted the trio of teens, which is when they reportedly began to threaten them and physically assault them, police said in a press statement.
During the confrontation, at least one of the teenagers grabbed lighter fluid and sprayed it around the store—even into the eye of a store employee—before leaving the premises, according to authorities.
Medics responded to the crime scene and treated the injured employee, according to authorities.
Police said officers were alerted to the shoplifting gone awry around 12:20 p.m. They arrested the three teens and took them to the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center.
The teens will be "charged accordingly," police said. Those charges were not listed in the press statement.
The 900 block of North Caroline Street has been the site of various crimes over the past few years. Apartments and row homes pepper the west side of the block while the storefront businesses at the Church Square Shopping Center sit on the east side of it.
In 2023, a 60-year-old man was found stabbed to death inside his home on that block.
The year before that, on Jan. 10, 2022, two people wearing all black shot through the glass door of a business and killed a 25-year-old man.
On Jan. 21, 2020, an 18-year-old man was shot in the foot on the block.
Prior to that, on April 9, 2019, a 42-year-old woman and a 29-year-old man were injured by gunfire from a shooting on that block. The woman died from her injuries.
