Officers were called late in the afternoon to the Cinemark theater at the Arundel Mills Mall in Hanover on Wednesday, where there was a reported robbery and assault that had just taken place.
According to a spokesperson from the Anne Arundel County Police Department, arriving officers were met by two teens – one 18, one 19 – who were involved in the incident, but were also complicit in what transpired.
One of the victims reported that a wallet had been stolen, while the other confirmed that he had been physically assaulted by three men; however, police say that the altercation originated from a verbal dispute that broke out during the movie, during which one of the victims “directed racial epithets at the suspects,” leading to the pair getting attacked and robbed.
One of the two teens was taken by paramedics to the University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center for treatment of injuries sustained during the assault.
All three suspects were described as being Black men, one wearing. black beanie hat with a white hooded sweatshirt, and white shoes, another wearing a black hoodie and gray pants, and the third had glasses on and was sporting a black sweatsuit.