Southern Md Police Beat / Two Black Males with Masks and Guns Held Up Liquor Store and assaulted clerk in Leonardtown Center

Southern Md Police Beat / Two Black Males with Masks and Guns Held Up Liquor Store and assaulted clerk in Leonardtown Center

LEONARDTOWN, MD. — The Christmas robbing season is in full bloom in St. Mary’s County with the stick-up and brutal beating of a clerk in a Leonardtown liquor store early in the evening on December 5, 2017.

St. Mary’s Sheriff Tim Cameron reports that at approximately 7:38 PM, deputies from the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office responded to Centre Liquors, located at 40955 Merchants Lane, at the Leonardtown Center,  in Leonardtown, Md.. for a reported armed robbery. 

Cameron reports that an employee at the establishment said that two black males wearing ski masks entered the store, with one of them branding a handgun.

The holdup men demanded money and assaulted the employee, say police.  Both suspects then fled the area on foot; the victim suffered minor injury from the assault and was transported to MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital for treatment. 

At the time of the robbery, the liquor store, located in the middle of the Leonardtown Center, is bustling with patrons at dinner time visiting the Subway, a Chinese restaurant, a seafood carryout, Rite Aid and Food Lion.

Along with couple dozen other nearby stores located there and in the adjacent Shops of Breton Bay complex, it is unusual for bandits to prey on a store at this time of the evening, except in the high crime areas of PG County and Baltimore City.

The parking lot is generally jammed with traffic as the area is the shopping district of Leonardtown and has been for decades since the bypass turned the old downtown of Leonardtown into government offices and antique shops.

This investigation is being continued by the Criminal Investigations Division.  Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact Detective Melissa Hulse at (301) 475-4200 extension *1996 or by email at Melissa.Hulse@stmarysmd.com.  Citizens may also remain anonymous and contact Crime Solvers at (301) 475-3333, or text a tip to “TIP239” plus their message to “CRIMES” (274637).

The Sheriff’s department brought out dozens of desk jockeys, putting every detective in uniform, called out the press, all the Sheriff’s men and all the Sheriff’s horses, promising criminals that a rapid and total enforcement would send them packing to jail. 

Sheriff Cameron called out all hands for a full court press on crime a week earlier than the robbery.  The Sheriff’s department brought out dozens of desk jockeys, putting every detective in uniform, called out the press, all the Sheriff’s men and all the Sheriff’s horses, promising criminals that a rapid and total enforcement would send them packing to jail.  Crews were out early setting up a command post in the parking lot of the Arby’s, just a short robbing drive away from the Center Liquors.

Another enforcement action is planned in the next few days in Millison Plaza in Lexington Park, according to Patrol Commander Capt. David Yingling. 

 The Sheriff and his command staff vowed to get the dozens of thieves of opportunity, pickpockets, shoplifters, fraud scheme artists and other miscreants who are active at all times of the year but invade stores with wild abandon at Christmas – new homes in the jail in time for a stocking full of coal.