FIREWORKS IN MALL? POLICE SEEK TEEN PRANKSTERS

PALM BEACH GARDENS — An apparent prank at The Gardens Mall has police searching for a group of juveniles suspected of setting off fireworks and causing a panic inside the indoor shopping center Monday evening.

Police were still searching for the group Tuesday after reviewing surveillance-camera footage but were following “strong investigative leads,” said Maj. Paul Rogers, spokesman for Palm Beach Gardens police. Police say the juveniles were on the second floor of the mall at about 5:30 p.m. Monday when at least one of them set off fireworks near the Nordstrom store.

Some patrons mistook the explosions for gunfire. The incident marked the third time since November that Palm Beach Gardens police were called to the mall to deal with a significant disturbance.

“We’re taking this very seriously,” Rogers said. “Any time there’s a disturbance in a large public area that causes panic, we’re going to take it seriously.”

Police neither said how many juveniles were involved nor released any descriptions of them. At least one man sustained minor injuries when he fell and skinned his knee. One woman said on Twitter that she saw about 15 people run from the mall and shout about “a shooter.”

“Everyone took off and scattered,” the woman wrote. “There’s

nothing like adrenaline you feel when you’re possibly running for your life.”

The woman wrote that her father fell when she grabbed him as his tried to go back into Brio, a restaurant near Nordstrom, and retrieve his cellphone, wallet and car keys.

“Are charges going to be pressed? It was very terrifying and incited mass panic,” the woman asked police on their Twitter page. “Whoever was responsible needs to be charged.”

In November, a dispute over alleged “drug rip-offs” led to shots being fired in the mall’s north parking lot, police said.

Dimitri Andrew Virginia, 23, was arrested on three felony charges. Virginia reportedly told police he fired in self-defense after 21-year-old Jamel Mechon Roseau punched him in an unprovoked attack outside the mall’s food court. Roseau was arrested on a battery charge.

Officers responded to the mall’s parking lot 10 days later, this time to investigate an altercation stemming from an alleged gun sale that went badly. Police arrested Jaedon Delton Johnson of Boynton Beach and Reagen Austin Hearn of Stuart on charges of armed robbery and aggravated battery.

Anyone with information about Monday’s incident is asked to call the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department at 561-799-4445.