Desmond Reilly had a difficult time deciding to close three restaurants at The Mall in Columbia. However, ongoing concerns about safety left him little choice, he said.

As a result, Reilly, a partner with Star Restaurant Group, has shuttered the doors of Bennie’s Pizza, The Walrus Oyster & Ale House and Chicken + Whiskey at the mall over the past month.

“In 2018, we opened up Walrus in Columbia, and fast-forward seven years, and it’s become a different place,” Reilly said. “It’s no longer what it was when we got involved. It was a town center. It was a bastion of safety and entertainment and dining. And in the past two and a half years, we’ve seen a dramatic, precipitous downfall in our sales, and our audience is shrinking year over year, and the issues driving that are public safety, public confidence in The Mall in Columbia.”

In July, 17-year-old Angelo Little was shot and killed at the mall. Authorities are still searching for William Thomas Marshall III, the 17-year-old accused of firing the gun. In February, two teens were fatally shot by the stairs leading from the bus stop next to Barnes & Noble to the Lidl parking lot, with an 18-year-old from Columbia charged.

In addition to these high-profile crimes, Reilly said he sees the effects of numerous fights around his restaurants. He said those altercations have scared customers away.

“I live in Howard County, so I’m a member of the community,” Reilly said. “And when the gang violence and the adolescent fights started breaking out two and a half years ago, that was bad. Fights breaking out in front of my restaurants, fights breaking out in front of The Walrus, fights breaking out in front of Chicken + Whiskey and Bennie’s Pizza — 50 teenagers going at it, scaring the hell out of everybody.”

Fulton resident Mostafa Razzak has mixed feelings about going to the mall. He said the county officials are trying to improve safety but have underestimated the size and scope of the violence.

“I feel safe going to restaurants at the mall, but my wife doesn’t,” Razzak said. “Also, I frequent the movie theater at Columbia mall. After dark, it can feel sketchy at times.”

Ellicott City resident Jamie Louzan agrees that the mall could use more security. However, he thinks the mall is generally safer and better than other area shopping centers.

“We don’t really go to restaurants in the mall, but we do go to a couple outside the mall and will continue to do so but might be mindful of the day of the week and time of day,” he said.

After the February shooting, Howard County Executive Calvin Ball and Police Chief Gregory Der released a Crime Reduction Plan for downtown Columbia to bolster police presence at the mall.

A permanent unit of officers from the Community Outreach & Pathways Section of the police department will be created to monitor the mall, the Merriweather District and the Columbia Lakefront, Ball and Der announced Monday.

A satellite office will be added inside the mall, as well as a new patrol beat assigned 24 hours a day solely to the mall.

Police have increased their presence around the mall on foot, mountain bikes, patrol cars, all-terrain vehicles and other methods while helping property owners with “banning notices” and making arrests for theft or trespassing, according to a news release.

Officers have also handled “nuisance and quality of life issues,” including parking violations, noise complaints and disorderly conduct.

An official with the mall owners, Brookfield Properties, expressed confidence that more restaurants will be interested in leasing space at the center.

“We do not publicly discuss the details of our tenant leases,” a Brookfield spokesperson said. “Nevertheless, we are sorry to see this restaurant group leave our center. I can say that we have a number of potential tenants interested in the space and look forward to continuing to offer a wide variety of dining options to meet the evolving needs of our community.”

Brookfield did not respond to questions asking to outline any safety or infrastructure improvements to the mall.

Reilly said that The Walrus’ other outpost at National Harbor is thriving and that Chicken + Whiskey’s other locations in Washington are also doing well. He is also considering another location for another Bennie’s Pizza.

Other restaurants at the mall, such as The Cheesecake Factory and Seasons 52, are part of larger corporations and can absorb losses more easily than independent restaurant groups like Star Restaurant Group, which reinvests its profits back in the business, according to Reilly.

He would like to come up with a plan to boost the independent restaurants near the mall but is still uncertain how to solve the problem.

“Here’s the biggest sort of travesty of it all: The Mall in Columbia has done nothing to drive a change in public sentiment, done nothing to communicate to the public at large in this community of which I am a member … their silence has been deafening,” Reilly said. “Their inactivity has put The Mall in Columbia, the reputation, in incredible jeopardy. So we pulled all of our resources.”

Baltimore Sun reporter Kiersten Hacker contributed to this article. Have a news tip? Contact Todd Karpovich at tkarpovich@baltsun.com or on X as @ToddKarpovich.