Lauderhill Mall Fight: Police Break Up Gathering Of More Than 100 Teens; 2 Hospitalized With Injuries After Brawl [VIDEO]
A mall in Lauderhill, Fla., was locked down for more than two hours on Tuesday after more than 100 teens congregated in the parking lot to watch a fight.
The Lauderhill Mall fight took place at around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday outside of the Dollar Store, the Sun Sentinel reports. Local authorities said two people were treated for minor injuries sustained in the brief scuffle, NBC Miami reports.
"I don't know what the motive was for using the mall or why they would want to fight," Lauderhill Police Lt. Michael Butkus told the Sun Sentinel. Police have yet to make any arrests in connection with the Lauderhill Mall fight.
While local police have yet to identify the exact cause of the fight, they believe that the incident is related to a previous fight between two girls, the current George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin murder trial, or discussions of a possible gathering on social media.
One Lauderhill teenager, identified only as “D,” told NBC Miami the incident began when word spread of a fight between two girls, and escalated when other teenagers arrived to settle arguments of their own. “Whatever pressure you had against anybody, you had to come out today,” the teenager said.
Danielle Jozwiak, a shopper at Lauderhill Mall, commented on the size of the crowd that gathered to watch the fight. “There was more than 100,” she told the Sun Sentinel. “You couldn’t even see [the parking lot] they had the sidewalk and the whole road full of kids.”
In all, authorities estimate that between 200 and 300 teens showed up at the Lauderhill Mall parking lot, with some of them starting separate fights within the mall itself, NBC Miami reports. Lauderhill police required the assistance of heavily-armed SWAT officers to control the situation.
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