Teens Shut Down Kentucky Mall with 2,000-Person Brawl

Over 50 police officers were called to Mall St. Matthews in Louisville, Kentucky, to break up a brawl involving nearly 2,000 teens. “Businesses were in the process of closing their doors, steel grates, and you had juveniles that were not allowing businesses to close up—[they were] climbing on the grates,” said police spokesperson Officer Dennis McDonald. “This was a riot. It was crazy.”

Police began receiving reports of disturbances at the mall around 7 p.m. on December 26.

“As they were responding to those disturbances, others were breaking out… Disturbances started to feed on themselves.” McDonald said. “They were just overwhelmed with a number of calls for service and reports of disorder.”

NBC News reports:

The officers on duty at the mall called for backup, and 50 officers from five different agencies responded, according to police.

“It was a series of brawls” involving 1,000 to 2,000 people ages 13 to their early 20s, McDonald said, adding that “the entire mall” was affected.

About 8 p.m., authorities started to advise stores in the mall to close their doors, but those involved in the brawls were refusing to leave.

(Emphasis ours.)

Fox-41 reporter Toni Konz tweeted a shaky and brief cellphone video (found via Racked) taken by a “local teen” inside Mall St. Matthews during the melee:

The chaos was ultimately subdued and officers remained on the scene until 1 a.m. No one was seriously injured and no arrests have been made. The resulting number of adults harmed by moral panic is still to be determined.