Groups Of Teens 'Wilding' Force San Leandro Police To Formulate New Game Plan
SAN LEANDRO (CBS SF) -- Police in San Leandro are formulating a game plan to deal with large groups of teens carrying out attacks in what they are calling 'wilding.'
Over the weekend, dozens of tens got more than rowdy at the Bay Fair Mall food court.
"It was a lot of commotion. Police were up here and then the security guard was trying to get them up off the premises," Marcel Robinson, a witness to the ruckus told KPIX 5.
Police tried to break up the group, but they ended up running back and forth from the mall and the Bay Fair BART station.
"They're using their numbers, their sheer numbers to intimidate, to assault, to rob other people, and it's pretty scary," Lt. Rick DeCosta of the San Leandro police department said.
At one point in the incident, a teenager shot himself in the foot trying to get away.
The group surrounded a young boy in the Bank of America parking lot and beat him for his shoes and phone.
"To gang up on a kid and take their shoes, I think that's wrong," San Leandro resident Lavon Haymon said.
The most recent incident in San Leandro included a group of teens surrounding a car and attacking the adults inside, trying to steal it with a small child in the back seat.