Former safety guard discovered not responsible of assaulting 11-year-old Primark shoplifter

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The guard, Mohammed Khan, labored for Securitas on the time of the incident in 2019. He was reportedly discovered not responsible this week.

A former safety guard who was accused of assaulting an 11-year-old shoplifter at a Primark retailer in Boston was acquitted this week.

Mohammed Khan, a Cambridge resident, was discovered not responsible of assault and battery on a baby below 14 and a misdemeanor civil rights violation, in accordance with the Suffolk County District Legal professional’s Workplace.

Prosecutors alleged that on June 9, 2019, Khan “used extreme and unreasonable drive” to detain the woman. She has admitted to taking a number of clothes objects from the Primark Retailer at 10 Summer time St. in Downtown Crossing. Police estimated the worth of the stolen items at $175.

State regulation mandates that the woman couldn’t be charged with shoplifting due to her age, prosecutors stated.

“The case garnered nationwide and worldwide consideration after a bystander video with obstructed view went viral,” Khan’s attorneys on the regulation agency Demissie and Church advised The Boston Globe in a press release. “The video, nonetheless, captured a really small a part of the incident from an obstructed view and led to an faulty false impression of what happened… Utilizing Primark’s surveillance video from completely different angles, the jury was capable of see what actually happened and exonerated Mr. Khan.”

Demissie and Church didn’t reply to a request for remark Thursday.

In 2019, the Suffolk DA’s workplace stated that Khan had been reprimanded at the very least 4 occasions beforehand for utilizing extreme drive.

On this incident, Khan allegedly pulled the woman again into the shop and pushed her right into a nook that had an obstructed safety digital camera view. Khan, who stands 6-foot-1 and weighed 225 kilos on the time, grabbed the woman by the top and neck and threw her to the bottom, prosecutors stated. He then punched her within the face whereas straddling her on the bottom, they stated.

The alleged assault lasted greater than seven minutes. Prosecutors stated that Khan started assaulting the woman once more after the 2 had been separated by Boston Police.

On the time, Khan was employed by Securitas, one of many largest safety corporations within the nation. Securitas was additionally charged with assault and battery on a baby below 14 and civil rights violations in 2019.

In 2021, Securitas struck a take care of the Suffolk DA’s workplace to drop the costs in opposition to the corporate. Securitas agreed to alter its coaching procedures, emphasizing de-escalation of high-risk conditions, administration of aggressive habits, unconscious bias, and the dealing with of juvenile offenders.

The corporate additionally agreed to alter its data retention coverage in any respect retail places in Massachusetts so that every one data of arrests or use of drive complaints could be saved in separate computer systems solely accessible by administration.