Brawling Teens Shut Down Long Beach Outlet Mall

Kate Nishimura
·3 min read
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A melee at Long Beach, Calif.’s Pike Outlets ended in the arrest of two youths over the weekend.

At least 100 teenagers were involved in a flash mob at the outdoor mall on Saturday evening, and a fight between two minors spiraled out of control.

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“Last night, we had hundreds of juveniles come to The Pike as part of a viral social media meet up,” Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) Chief Wally Hebeish said. “At one point, a fight broke out, and officers immediately intervened by running into a large crowd, taking control of the situation, and arresting both suspects involved.”

The Pike Outlets feature stores like Express, Forever 21, H&M, Levi’s, the Nike Factory Store, Hot Topic, Sunglass Hut, Gap and Claire’s. The shopping destination closed early Saturday evening out of an abundance of caution, with retailers seeking to avoid being overwhelmed by the crowd. The Downtown Long Beach Alliance said social media posts indicated that teenagers were planning to meet up at Lincoln Park to organize a smash-and-grab, according to the Long Beach Post.

Shortly after the fight a shooting took place near the outlets, LBPD said. Officers were deployed to the scene immediately, and provided a young victim with medical aid. The incident is currently being investigated.

Hebeish said law enforcement had been out in full force and was “extremely visible throughout the downtown area” over the weekend, presumably to deter crime. But when the fight broke out at the Pike Outlets, a Stage 2 Tactical Alert was declared, “meaning we held over our day shift officers and deployed our afternoon shift officers quickly to ensure we were able to support the group activity in downtown,” the chief added.

Long Beach, like many other cities in L.A. County, has stepped up its enforcement efforts in the wake of escalating retail crime. According to District Attorney George Gascon, about 200 cases of organized retail crime—wherein a group of two or more individuals gathers to steal goods from a merchant with the intent to resell—were filed in L.A. County during 2023.

Many of the thefts involved juvenile defendants, sometimes flooding stores by the hundreds. Organized retail crime charges were filed on behalf of retailers including the 99 Cent Store, American Eagle, Bed Bath & Beyond, CVS, Kohls, Macy’s, Marshall’s, Nike, Nordstrom, Nordstrom Rack, Old Navy, Rite Aid, Ross, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sephora, Target, Ulta and Victoria’s Secret last year.

“We want businesses to succeed and for Angelenos to feel safe while they’re out in public,” Gascon said last month. “Filing these cases is just the beginning of my office’s work toward deterring these types of crimes in order to make Los Angeles County a safer place.”

Retailers are also attempting to mitigate their risk by implementing new policies. Last month, Torrance’s Del Amo Fashion Center announced the implementation of a youth supervision program wherein minors must be accompanied by a parent or adult age 21 or older when visiting the mall on Fridays or Saturdays. The decision came after the shopping center was repeatedly targeted by flash mobs.