Amigos Mexican Grill closed on Mother’s Day after permit suspension

A suspended occupancy permit kept Amigos Mexican Grill dark on Mother’s Day, shutting the Laurel restaurant on one of its busiest and most lucrative days of the year.

The closure landed at the worst possible moment for a business that serves the Centre at Laurel shopping center on Baltimore Avenue. Instead of a packed dining room and takeout rush, the restaurant remained closed Sunday, May 10, 2026, after county permitting problems forced it to stop operating.

The shutdown came just days after a violent Cinco de Mayo gathering at the same shopping center sharpened attention on the site. On Tuesday, May 6, 2026, three people were shot and two people were stabbed in separate incidents in the parking lot between Amigos Mexican Grill and LongHorn Steakhouse around 10:30 p.m.

Laurel police said a party under two tents at Amigos had grown large before officers shut it down early after a fight broke out. Police later identified Shon Juan Cook Jr., 26, of Howard County, as the suspect in the stabbing case and said an arrest warrant had been issued for him. Investigators were also seeking an unidentified shooting suspect and said they had reviewed video footage and shared photos to help identify him.

Mayor Keith R. Sydnor publicly praised Laurel police and Prince George’s County police for their quick response and coordinated efforts after the violence. The police response and the permit suspension together underscored how fast a business location can move from a holiday gathering spot to a site of enforcement and disruption.

For Amigos, the timing was especially damaging. Mother’s Day is one of the restaurant’s busiest days of the year, and losing that Sunday likely meant losing a major share of weekend revenue. For Prince George’s County, the episode highlighted how occupancy enforcement can carry immediate economic consequences for a small business, especially when a permit suspension lands right after a public-safety incident.

The sequence of events at the Centre at Laurel also showed how tightly public safety and business operations are linked along Baltimore Avenue. A large crowd, a late-night fight, arrests and warrant searches, then a Mother’s Day closure created a fast-moving picture of how one shopping center can become the focus of both police attention and regulatory action in the span of a few days.