NewsLocal News

Actions

Police: Woman stole items from victim in Boise mall shooting

Jo Acker.jpg
Posted at 3:03 PM, Nov 04, 2021
and last updated 2021-11-04 17:28:46-04

BOISE, Idaho — A 54-year-old Idaho woman was jailed after police say she stole from the body of a security guard killed during a Boise mall shooting.

Mary Alyce Scarbrough of Boise is charged with felony counts of alteration of evidence, malicious injury to property and grand theft, The Idaho Statesman reported Wednesday. She’s being held without bail on accusations of violating her parole, as well as on a $250,000 bond on the other charges.

“The court’s very concerned about the alleged conduct in this case,” said Magistrate Judge David Manweiler during a court hearing last week.

Security guard Jo Acker, 26, died in the Oct. 25 shooting at the Boise Towne Square mall. Roberto Padilla Arguelles, a 49-year-old Rupert man shopping for gifts for his family, was also killed.

Police say that minutes later they exchanged gunfire with 27-year-old suspect Jacob Bergquist, who died the next day.

Prosecutors said Scarbrough was inside the mall when the shooting began.

“The defendant approached the dying security guard at the mall,” a prosecutor said during Scarbrough’s court appearance. The complaint said that Scarbrough took rings, a gun belt, clothing and other property from Acker’s body.

“A woman experiencing a mental health crisis significantly altered the crime scene by removing and displacing evidence throughout the mall,” Boise Police Department spokeswoman Haley Williams said in an email to the newspaper.

She has pleaded not guilty to disturbing the peace.