From Danny Barrett Jr.

An argument over personal belongings between two former employees of Pemberton Square’s movie theater Saturday led to a stabbing and an arrest, hours before a fight in the middle of the mall led to four more people facing charges.

A Vicksburg man, Dale Landry, 20, whose street address was not available, remained hospitalized at River Region Medical Center Saturday night, a hospital spokesman said.

Kevin Roberts, 20, 10084 Oak Ridge Road, was in the Warren County Jail, charged with aggravated assault soon after the assault was reported at about 4 p.m., said Vicksburg Police Lt. Davey Barnette.

He said Landry was stabbed twice in the back and once in the arm after the two squabbled over the contents of a bookbag,.

&#8220It’s just foolish, really,” Barnette said. &#8220A fight escalated to the point where one got stabbed.”

Landry was living with a friend and current employee of the cinema, police said.

After the two men argued while standing outside just beyond the entrance to the Pemberton Square Cinema 4, Roberts fled in his pickup and drove toward his parents’ home near Openwood Plantation, Barnette said. Vicksburg police arrested Roberts at Oak Ridge and Henry roads.

Sgt. Jimmy Sweet was still investigating the case for Vicksburg police Saturday night, but it was not clear if Roberts would face any additional charges.

Movies scheduled until about 7:30 p.m. were not shown because managers were assisting police.

&#8220We don’t have anybody to run the projectors,” said a cinema employee who asked not to be identified.

Later, at 8:50 p.m., police responded to a fight call at the mall. Mall security reported chairs being thrown in the middle of the mall. Three male juveniles and an adult were in police custody within minutes, but the name of the adult was not available.

At least 10 businesses have left Pemberton Square mall and its adjacent Pemberton Plaza property in the past two years, primarily because of higher rents being charged by parent company CBL & Associates Inc.

The 21-year-old shopping center, which has had less-than-stellar foot traffic in the past several months, did not appear to have many more customers than usual Saturday afternoon or night, just more than two weeks before Christmas.

Five of the vacated stores closed in August after a fight between patrons and two of the stores’ proprietors ended in the stores’ leases being canceled a week later.

No arrest was made in the August fight, and management at Pemberton Square and officials with CBL & Associates did not make public comments.

Renovations in the works to upgrade the cinema’s seating and sound system were delayed indefinitely in mid-summer.