As many as 2,000 teens shut down a mall in Kentucky on Saturday night after Louisville-area police appeared to be overwhelmed by multiple disturbances possibly coordinated through social media.
Authorities first received a call at 7 p.m. about a fight at the St. Matthews Mall that snowballed into many other disturbances, said the
Courier-Journal.
St. Matthews Police Department spokesman Dennis McDonald said "the disturbances fed off each other."
"To say that it was a riot, that would probably be accurate," McDonald told
WDRB-TV. "Quite honestly, they became overwhelmed with the number of calls they were getting. They requested assistance from additional officers and at that point, things continued to escalate."
Officers from the Jeffersontown and Louisville Metro police, along with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department, responded to try to regain control of mall.
"Apparently there are parents and guardians that have used the mall as a babysitter and we're not going to tolerate it and the mall isn't going to tolerate it," McDonald told the Courier-Journal.
A large group of teens believed to be causing the trouble at the mall then spread through parts of the Shelbyville Road area, said
WHAS-TV. Police also received reports of gunfire near the mall's Cinemark movie theater.
No arrests were made. McDonald said police concentrated on restoring order and protecting shoppers. The mall started to close down about 8:45 p.m. and police regained control about 9:30 p.m.
McDonald said police believed most of the people involved the incident were from 15 to 19 years old. He said the majority of the teenagers appeared to have been dropped off at the mall or arrived via public transportation.
McDonald said he believed social media helped increase the size of the crowd but didn't think the entire incident was coordinated through the Internet.
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