Anywhere between 1,000 and 2,000 people — a large percentage of them middle-school- and high-school-aged kids — were involved in multiple altercations during a chaotic scene at a Kentucky shopping mall on Saturday evening, according to multiple published reports.
The disturbances happened at Mall St. Matthews in St. Matthews, Kentucky, a Louisville suburb.
Police told the Louisville Courier-Journal that most of the children were unsupervised. Law enforcement was still working to determine what exactly touched off the altercations, which began in the shopping center and later spilled out into nearby parking lots and businesses.
Speaking to NBC News, St. Matthews Police Spokesman Dennis McDonald described the situation as “a riot.” He said “a series of brawls” broke out across “the entire mall,” adding that he had not seen anything like the events of the evening in his 33 years as a police officer.
The mall has 130 stores and more than 23 acres of leasable space, according to its website.
The Courier-Journal reported that police initially received a single call for assistance to break up disorderly conduct, but got “dozens of others” as more people joined in and the altercations became more violent. McDonald told the newspaper the conflicts appeared to fuel each other, and “kind of a mob mentality” developed. Officers from at least four agencies responded to the situation.
Police were still trying to determine if the fights were gang-related or pre-planned, the Courier-Journal reported. But McDonald told the newspaper that parents and guardians of many kids appeared to be using the mall as a “babysitter,” noting that police believe most of Saturday’s troublemakers took public transportation to the mall or were dropped off there.
McDonald told the Courier-Journal that the mall should consider adopting a policy that would bar children below a certain age from visiting the mall without a parent accompanying them. He told the newspaper that could ultimately help prevent other disturbances from occurring there.
Local television station WLKY reported there weren’t any reports of injuries or arrests stemming from the confrontations. However, the mall decided to close more than an hour early, and one business manager told the station he lost more than $1,000 because of shutting his doors.
The mall was open Sunday, WLKY reported, though police stepped up their security presence there.
