Kids as young as 16 in massive street brawl
Witnesses to a mass brawl in a suburban Wellington street have talked of how a social media-publicised party turned to chaos with police using pepper spray and formation lines to quell the young crowd.
Those living on and around Stoke St, Newtown, have praised police actions late on Saturday night, after the $10 entry fee party at a rented hall sprawled out to a car park, then erupted in multiple fights down Stoke St. Those involved were aged 16 to 18, they said.
Residents asked for anonymity due to fear of reprisals.
‘‘There was more than 200 people,’’ one said. ‘‘Young, drunk, and on testosterone.’’
It appeared there was a party that had been advertised on social media in one of the halls in the area, but this got broken up by noise control, resulting in the crowd flocking down to a car park on the corner of Hanson and Stoke streets.
It was not clear what started the first of the brawls, but it appeared ‘‘someone did something not popular with the group’’ then made a run for it.
‘‘The crowd followed them down.’’
There were soon numerous fights going on in the area. Police arrived and set up lines on Stoke and Hanson streets before herding the group down Hanson St and warning the crowd there would be arrests if they did not disperse. ‘‘Police did an amazing job,’’ the resident said. ‘‘They kept the calm. The kids were taunting police and the result is [the teens] got pepper spayed.’’
Another local said they heard the party starting about 9pm or 10pm on Saturday before the crowd moved to the street. One person urinated in their front yard, right outside their toddler daughter’s bedroom.
There were about 200 people – aged 16 to 18 – with multiple fights breaking out.
‘‘They were giving police a lot
of grief. A couple of cans [got thrown] at police.’’
Police in a statement said they were called to Stoke St about 11pm to reports of disorder.
About 100 teenagers were involved in the street fight. Some allegedly threw cans and other items at police.
About 35 police officers were brought in to clear the area, police said.
Aaron Gittoes, who lives nearby, said there were a lot of drunk people at a party on the street.
About 10 police cars arrived, including a dog unit and undercover cars.
‘‘Police started to create a line and sweep the streets and remove people and stop people accessing the road by car or foot,’’ he said.
Some younger men started to ‘‘kick off’’ at police, who used what appeared to be pepper spray on one of them, he said.
‘‘Police were themselves on edge with the whole situation . . . it was getting out of hand pretty quick but the police had it handled very well.’’
Police said one person was arrested for breach of the peace.
There were no reports of any injuries to those involved in the fight or police. No weapons were believed to be involved.