A massive brawl went down at a New Jersey shopping mall Saturday night featuring 300 teenagers running amok, fighting each other — and even tangling with police, WABC-TV reported.
Turns out a TikTok influencer days before told his followers about the “meetup” at the Menlo Park Mall in Edison, the station said — and wouldn’t you know the kids just couldn’t help themselves and followed the crowd?
‘Parents need to be focused on their kids, making sure they’re not causing this kind of rowdiness in other towns.’
Edison police said the chaos and violence ensued not long after the teens started filling up the mall around 8 p.m.
“They were having a brawl; they were pushing and shoving,” Chief Thomas Bryan with the Edison Police Department told WABC. “When our officers arrived, they actually started fighting with our officers.”
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You can view a collection of cellphone clips here showing much of the action.
In addition, at the 46-second mark of the above video — and at the 1:15 mark of the YouTube video below — officers are seen holding what appear to be rifles. Blaze News on Wednesday morning spoke with Chief Bryan, who said police originally were called about an active shooter at the mall and that there were “gunshots fired.” Therefore, Bryan told Blaze News, police had to come prepared for that, which is why officers are seen with rifles amid the mall brawl.
One officer was injured, WABC said, adding that the throng was so out of control that police from surrounding municipalities responded as well; cops needed about an hour and a half to break things up.
Police told News 12 New Jersey that six teens were arrested for disorderly persons charges as well as failure to disperse; one suspect was charged with assaulting a police officer.
All of the juveniles were eventually released to their parents, NJN said.
Edison Mayor Sam Joshi blasted those same parents during a Monday news conference; NJN said parents likely drove many of their teenage children to the mall for the meetup.
“What are the parents doing? Aren’t the parents aware that they’re traveling 45 minutes to cause a disturbance within Edison Township?” Joshi asked, according to WABC. “It makes no sense. Parents need to be focused on their kids, making sure they’re not causing this kind of rowdiness in other towns.”
Edison police also are looking into possible charges for the TikToker who posted the original “meetup” video telling his followers to go to the Menlo Park Mall, NJN reported.
Police told NJN there was no property damage.
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The post Massive mall brawl: 300 teens descend upon shopping mall, run amok, fight — even with cops. TikTok influencer set ‘meetup.’ appeared first on TheBlaze.
