Security Guard Runs Over Child At Marin County Mall: Police

SAN RAFAEL, CA — A security guard purposely ran over a kid on a bike with a car and then fled the scene Wednesday at a San Rafael mall, police said.

Melvin Anthony Kennedy, 66, of Oakland was arrested Wednesday and booked into the Marin County Jail with felony charges, police said.

At around 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, the San Rafael Police Department received reports that a security guard ran over a child on a bicycle in the parking lot of the Northgate Mall in San Rafael's Terra Linda neighborhood, police said.

Witnesses told officers that the driver of the private security vehicle that struck the kid then fled the scene, police said.

Officers said they interviewed several witnesses who told them they had seen a security guard yelling at kids at the bottom of the two-story mall parking structure. Police said the witnesses then saw the security guard chase the children in the security vehicle and then strike one of them with the car. The guard stopped briefly and then fled the scene, police said.

Officers said while they were investigating the scene, Kennedy returned and turned himself in.

Police said they learned he had become upset when the group of kids tore down caution tape being used to close off a portion of the garage.

Kennedy is a security employee of a private security company that the Northgate Mall contracts, police said.

The injured kid was transported to a local hospital and treated for nonlife-threatening injuries, police said.

Police said they booked Kennedy into the Marin County Jail for assault with a deadly weapon and felony child abuse.