Family of man killed at Royal Farms wins $4.1 million verdict against security company

BALTIMORE – A jury has awarded $4.1 million to the family of a man who was shot and killed by a security guard at a Baltimore Royal Farms nearly 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 supermarket in the 1800 block of Washington Boulevard in October 2022.

According to police, Powell was found in the doorway of the store with a gunshot wound to the head.

The lawsuit alleges that the security company did not properly train security guard Kanisha Spence and did not properly check her background.

Spence was sentenced to 60 years in prison after being found guilty for premeditated murder earlier this year.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers obtained a verdict after a two-week trial.

“We proved to the jury that it was the security company’s job and obligation to do their own background check and make sure that the person they were entrusting with the authority to take someone off the scene actually had the background, the temperament and the ability to exercise discretion to put them in a position where they would be coming into contact with many people in public – different types of people, at different times of day – where there could be intense and potentially dangerous confrontations, and that they needed to de-escalate the situation and not let it escalate,” said attorney Malcolm Ruff of Murphy, Falcon and Murphy.

His attorney colleague Ronald Richardson told WJZ that Powell’s mother promised her son that justice would be done.

“No amount of money in the world will bring him back, and they weren’t interested in the money. They were interested in justice,” Richardson said.

Murphy, Falcon and Murphy wrote in a separate public statement: “The jury found that Ms. Spence not only unlawfully shot and killed Marquise, but that Maximum failed to properly train her, failed to properly check her background, and should never have hired or retained her. There are many things wrong with our justice system, but at its core, it is designed to deliver justice. We commend the jury members for allowing justice to prevail, because the facts of this case scream for it.”

WJZ has contacted the security company and will update this story once we receive a comment.