<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4PiWJC_0wPBLabS00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4PiWJC_0wPBLabS00" width="400" height="301" ></figure><p>Montgomery County police responded to a report of a 2nd-degree assault at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda on the evening of October 24, 2024. The assault was reported at the mall at 7:22 PM. Two police cruisers pulled up to Entrance 5 by The Cheesecake Factory in response to the incident. </p><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=00cka9_0wPBLabS00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=00cka9_0wPBLabS00" width="301" height="400" ></figure><p>This was the tenth assault reported at the mall this year, which has already doubled the five assaults reported in all of 2023 at the popular retail center. The last assault took place on August 8. Montgomery County police opened a "resource room" at the mall in 2022, in an attempt to address elevated crime at the property - part of a general crime wave that has persisted countywide since 2020, after the County Council defunded the police - after 12 assaults were reported there that year. The police department is down 194 officers since 2020, and 179 police officer positions are now vacant, according to a County Council staff memo released earlier this year.</p></div></body>

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Police respond to assault at Montgomery Mall in Bethesda

Montgomery County police responded to a report of a 2nd-degree assault at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda on the evening of October 24, 2024. The assault was reported at the mall at 7:22 PM. Two police cruisers pulled up to Entrance 5 by The Cheesecake Factory in response to the incident.