Two arrested in brawl at California shopping center after planned meetup goes viral
Two females were arrested and a Southern California shopping center closed early Saturday after a brawl broke out at the site of a planned social media meetup.
The fight took place at The Pike Outlets, a Long Beach shopping center known by locals as The Pike, Long Beach Police Chief Wally Hebeish wrote in a statement Sunday.
According to police, the two females started fighting around 5:40 p.m. that day but officers quickly broke it up.
An 18-year-old female and a juvenile female were arrested in connection to the incident, the Long Beach Police Department told USA TODAY in a statement Tuesday night. Both females were taken to Long Beach City Jail.
The 18-year-old was booked and released for battery while the juvenile was cited and released.
"The Long Beach Police Department became aware of a large gathering planned on social media and increased patrols throughout the weekend," a spokesperson for the department wrote via email. "We had a heavy police presence in The Pike area leading up to the planned gathering."
OC Hawk, which follows breaking news in Orange and surrounding counties, captured footage of the brawl. In one video, a large group of people follows a female who walks up to another individual and hits her. More people begin hitting each other as police rush through the crowd, attempting to break up the fights. In another shot, the two females from the initial fight are handcuffed, footage from OC Hawk shows.
The crowd was so large that the outlet had to shut down early, Los Angeles media outlets including KTLA and ABC7 reported. The shopping center closed at about 6 p.m. Saturday and police announced that anyone who didn’t cooperate and leave would be arrested.
Shortly after the brawl and just before 6:30 p.m., officers responded to a nearby shooting and found a 16-year-old victim with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to his lower body. Officers helped the teenager until the Long Beach Fire Department arrived and took him to the hospital, police told USA TODAY in a statement Tuesday night.
His condition was listed as stable, reports said. It was not immediately clear if the shooting was connected to the brawl, according to KTLA and ABC7.
Police anticipated gathering that started on social media
Long Beach police knew about the planned gathering, according to a statement from police, as well as a Facebook post about the meetup. Police asked in their post that people to report any suspicious activity in the area ahead of time.
“We are aware of a large group gathering planned for this afternoon in The Pike,” police wrote on Saturday. “We have increased our presence in the area. Criminal activity will not be tolerated.”
Police prepared for the planned fight by bringing a bus to the area in case multiple juveniles needed to be taken into custody, television station KTLA reported.
Chief Hebeish from the Long Beach Police Department said in a statement Sunday that it was a “group disturbance” and a "viral social media meet up.”
“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, as well as respond to calls for service citywide,” he said in the statement.
“I am incredibly proud of the efforts of our officers last night, and I want to reiterate that the Long Beach Police Department will not tolerate criminal acts or violence in our community," he said in the statement.
Police said Tuesday night that the investigation surrounding the brawl is ongoing.
Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Follow her on Twitter at @SaleenMartin or email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Long Beach, California brawl: 2 arrested in fight at Pike Outlets
