Anne Arundel County police have arrested two sisters in connection with an assault captured on video the day after Thanksgiving at Westfield Annapolis mall.
Antonia Janee Ash, 18, and Ebonie Ta Shawn Brooks, 31, who both live at a Poplar Hill residence in Clinton in Prince George's County, have been charged with first- and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct, and disturbing the peace, police said.
Video of the assault has been seen more than 130,000 times on YouTube.
"No one should accept this kind of behavior at a shopping mall any time of year, especially during the holiday season," Police Chief Kevin Davis said in a statement Thursday morning.
The charges stem from an early morning assault Nov. 29 on a 17-year-old girl at Victoria's Secret.
The girl told officers she was shopping in the lingerie store at 12:40 a.m. when a woman came up to her and accused her of assaulting her.
When the girl told the woman she didn't know what she was talking about, she said the woman pushed her to the floor and punched her.
A second woman joined in the attack, police said. The women then ran out of the store.
A nearby shopper shot a cellphone video of the assault and posted it online. The video helped investigators trace the women to other parts of the mall where they gathered additional information about their identities, police spokesman Lt. T.J. Smith said via email.
In the last two months, detectives have received tips and reviewed the video as well as other store surveillance video. Based on the video evidence, police said could trace the women to a store they had been in just before the assault in Victoria's Secret.
Police said they subpoenaed store video and identified Ash and Brooks as the attackers.
With help from the Prince George's County police, investigators searched the sisters' Clinton home Thursday morning, where they said they recovered evidence from the attack.
Both sisters were arrested.
As of Thursday morning, the sisters had been transported to Anne Arundel but had not yet seen a court commissioner, Smith said.
Police did not disclose a motive for the assault. ___
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Distributed by MCT Information Services
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