Family of man killed at Royal Farms receives $4.1 million judgement against security company
BALTIMORE -- A jury has awarded $4.1 million to the family of a man shot and killed by a security guard at a Baltimore Royal Farms almost two years ago.
The family of 26-year-old Marquise Powell sued Maximum Protective Services Security Investigations LLC after he was gunned down at the convenience store in the 1800-block of Washington Boulevard in October of 2022.
Powell was found at the doorway of the store with a gunshot to his head, according to police.
The lawsuit alleged the security company failed to properly train security guard Kanisha Spence and did not properly check her background.
Spence was sentenced to 60 years behind bars after being found guilty of second-degree murder earlier this year.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs won the judgement after a trial that lasted two weeks.
"We proved to the jury that it was incumbent and it was required of the security company to do their own background check and to ensure that somebody who they were entrusting with the authority to take somebody off of the face of the planet would indeed have the background, the temperament and the ability to have discretion in order to put them in that position where they were going to be coming into contact with lots of people in the public—different types of people, different times of day—where there could be intense and potentially dangerous confrontations, that they were required to de-escalate as opposed to escalate," said attorney Malcolm Ruff with Murphy, Falcon and Murphy.
His fellow counsel Ronald Richardson told WJZ Powell's mother promised her son that justice would be served.
"No amount of money is going bring him back, and they weren't in this for the money. They were in this for the justice," Richardson said.
Murphy, Falcon and Murphy wrote in a separate public statement, "The jury determined that not only did Ms. Spence unlawfully shoot and kill Marquise, but that Maximum failed to properly train her, failed to properly vet her background, and never should have hired her or continued to employ her. There is a lot wrong with our judicial system, but, fundamentally, it is designed to render justice. We commend the members of the jury for allowing justice to prevail because the facts of this case cried out for it."
WJZ reached out to the security company and will update this story when we receive any comment.
