Police: TJ Maxx shoplifter releases pepper spray in Brookline store, sending 2 to hospital
BROOKLINE - Police say a shoplifter released pepper spray inside a Brookline T.J. Maxx Sunday evening, sending two people to the hospital.
Officers responded to the Harvard Street store just after 6 p.m. for a possible hazmat situation, the Brookline Police Department said. They said a T.J. Maxx worker was following a woman heading for the store exit with items she didn't pay for.
"The merchandise security alarms went off and she was observed by this employee to have a canister in her right hand," police said. "She sprayed the entry way behind her with what is believed to be pepper spray."
The pepper spray caused respiratory issues for several customers and store employees, police said. EMS treated multiple people at the scene, and two were hospitalized as a precaution.
Police described the suspect as a "heavy set African American woman possibly in her 50s wearing a long black puffy coat, capris pants and a hoodie or head covering." She got into a black pickup truck driven by a white man with shoulder-length hair, according to police.
