14 DAY TRIAL // More than a hundred teens have been involved in a brawl at the Lauderhill Mall on Tuesday afternoon, June 25 in Florida.
Police from Lauderhill, Plantation, Sunrise and Broward were sent out to calm spirits at the shopping mall, the Sun Sentinel reports.
The teen fight erupted at 3:30 p.m. in front of a Dollar Store location, then moved towards the mall as more teenagers became engaged in the confrontation. Two people were transported to the hospital with minor injuries.
“There was more than 100. [...] You couldn’t even see [the parking lot] they had the sidewalk and the whole road full of kids,” Shopper Danielle Jozwiak describes.
However, police reports show that more than a hundred people were on site, possibly 200 to 300. Witnesses explain that the police were outnumbered as they arrived at the scene on 1267 N. State Road 7.
"I just saw a bunch of kids running around. [...] I didn't think anything of it [until] I just saw a whole bunch of police officers," construction worker Christian Parfene recalls.
Most of the teenagers were in the parking lot but, as law enforcement officials showed up, they ran inside the mall. SWAT teams had to be brought in and a section of the shopping center was put on lockdown throughout the rest of the day.
The riot started with two girls engaging in a violent physical confrontation. According to NBC Miami, one of teens participating in the brawl mentioned that the fight escalated from there.
"Whatever pressure you had against anybody, you had to come out today," he said, identifying himself only as "D."
Lauderhill Police Lt. Michael Butkus explained that only under 20 kids were actually involved in the fight, while others were cheering them on.
"There were 15 or fewer teens involved in one fight, inside the mall. [...] The whole crowd was not fighting, they were spectators," Butkus said in a press conference.