Police: Multiple Fights Prompt Closure Of Monroeville Mall
MONROEVILLE (KDKA/AP) -- At least one person was taken away by ambulance and the Monroeville Mall had to be shut down Friday evening after police say multiple fights, which witnesses describe as complete chaos, broke out.
The mall was closed down at 8:30 p.m. due to the melee.
According to witnesses, it all started with two teenage girls, and then some other young woman joined in.
After that dispersed, witnesses say more fights started and that's when police arrived on the scene.
"All of the sudden there was all this commotion. And there were… you just heard like a stampede and a bunch of people screaming and yelling and then all of the people that worked at the store came running to the front of the store and shut all the doors and locked you in until the police came," said one witness. "And then there were all kinds of police and they had riot gear on."
Law enforcement officials from several departments were called in.
A mall spokesperson tells KDKA's David Highfield that the incidents did not happen at one specific location, but rather all across the entire mall.
The mall employees were escorted out of the building by police around 10 p.m.
Monroeville Police Chief K. Douglas Cole says at least two people were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
Cole says large groups of teens began showing up around 5 p.m., with the crowds swelling to as many as 1,000, according to mall security officers. Cole says he doesn't believe it was an organized event or protest.
Cole says he expects officers to issue disorderly conduct citations. He says two arrests for fighting were related to an earlier domestic dispute.
Stay with KDKA for the latest on this developing story.
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