Some mall owners weigh restricting youths’ access
Policy changes follow fights involving large groups of people
MANCHESTER — Chaotic crowd fights, like those at shopping malls in Manchester and Milford on Wednesday night, have pushed some mall owners around the nation to respond with rules restricting access for younger patrons.
“We are reviewing our policy regard- ing juvenile patrons and will make any necessary modifications needed to prevent future incidents,” managers of the Connecticut Post Mall said in a statement released Thursday after a large fracas there forced a shutdown two hours earlier than usual Wednesday. “Connecticut Post Mall is committed to providing a safe and comfortable environment for all our guests.”
In Manchester, many of the 200 to 300 people involved in a melee at the Shoppes at Buckland Hills were young people seizing a chance to spread chaos, a police spokesman said Thursday. A representative of Buckland Hills could not be reached for comment.
To make adult patrons feel safer and cut down on crowds of loitering teens, managers at privately owned malls across the country have started restricting access. A Delaware mall launched a curfew in July 2008, requiring anyone under 18 be escorted by an adult over 21 on Fridays and Saturdays after 5 p.m. An upscale shopping mall outside Cleveland announced a similar policy in 2017.
“Group mentality can definitely take
effect, and I think it was just youth taking advantage of the situation,” Manchester police Lt. Ryan Shea said of the mass commotion at the Shoppes at Buckland Hills on Wednesday night that shut the mall and required the assistance of dozens of officers from several area towns.
No one was hurt as police officers broke up fights and ousted animated teens from the hilltop mall, Shea said.
Manchester police arrested three women and one 17-year-old boy, who had a handgun tucked into his pants.
For the foreseeable future, Shea said, police and mall management have dedicated additional personnel to the retail hub. Two years ago, also on the day after Christmas, fights broke out among swarms of young people at the mall and seven arrests were made. Similar blowups happened at malls across the nation that day. From Colorado to Connecticut, police reported crowds of youths erupting in punches and raised cellphones. Videos of clashes were widely shared on social media.
Privately owned shopping malls have the right to enforce restrictions on juveniles, Gary Daniels, of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, told the Associated Press last year. Legal problems, Daniels said, would surface only if a mall discriminates in how the rules are enforced.
“If the way this shakes out that they’re only going to hassle the black kids and never ask the white kids, that would present a prob- lem,” Daniels was quoted as saying.
In Superior Court in Manchester on Thursday, Dynastee McCoy, 19, of Wethersfield; Inaeja Williams, 18, of Hartford; and Naejza Bates, 18, of New Britain, were released on promises to appear later this month. Manchester police charged each woman with second-degree breach of peace, interfering with police and second-degree inciting a riot. All three were described in court as lifelong Connecticut residents with no criminal records.
The trouble at Buckland Hills began about 6 p.m. with a fight between McCoy and an unidentified female and that girl’s mother, according to a police report. McCoy told police she had exchanged words with the younger person, whose mother then punched McCoy, the report said. Shea said police do not know what sparked the argument.
Police officers in the upper level food court saw the initial face-off in the center court area directly below them, Officer Cory Wesoloskie wrote in a report. As he and another officer headed to the area, a large crowd formed and fists started to fly.
“Groups of several hundred people, mostly youths, were gathering around, yelling and screaming,” the report says. “The situation got out of control very quickly, with several other fights breaking out in the mall, causing stores to lower their gates in fear of a riot situation.”
McCoy was intent on getting to someone in the crowd, and Wesoloskie ordered her to back off, the report says. McCoy refused to listen and kept trying to get around him, Wesoloskie wrote. As he tried to handcuff McCoy, Williams, her friend, rushed over and screamed at him to let her go, the officer wrote. McCoy and Williams continued to yell and scream, prompting others in the crowd to yell and scream and pull out their cameras to film the confrontation, the report says.
Meanwhile, mall security officers were trying to restrain Bates, and at one point, one of them sprayed pepper spray into the air, police said. As hundreds of youths scuffled and ran through the mall, police called for help from neighboring communities.
State troopers and officers from South Windsor, Vernon, Glastonbury, East Windsor and East Hartford responded. Police said everything was under control by 7 p.m.
When the initial fight broke out, six police officers were patrolling the mall, a beefed-up presence due to the holidays and rumors that a fight was planned, police said. The rumor, however, started at Manchester High School and actually concerned the fights in 2016, not a planned brawl for this year, Shea said. The 2016 incident also happened the day after Christmas and likely was organized through social media posts, police said at the time. Shea said police have no evidence that the melee Wednesday was planned, but they are investigating the possibility.
The17-year-old male arrested in Manchester was charged with second-degree breach of peace, interfering with police, seconddegree inciting a riot and firstdegree criminal trespass. He also was charged with carrying a pistol without a permit after an officer found a .22-caliber Taurus 228 handgun tucked into his waist- band, police said. Police learned that the youth knew the women who were arrested and possibly was related to one of them, the report says. A police sergeant had told the teenager to leave the mall because he was being unruly, Wesoloskie wrote. He left, but then came back in and was arrested, police said.
The fights at the Post Mall broke out about the same time as the Manchester brawl. The incidents aren’t believed to be connected, but both involved large groups of young people who were off from school for the holidays. News reports from around the nation have cited teenage boredom as one of the chief reasons for such incidents.
In Maryland, Baltimore County officials recently called on managers of a mall to impose restrictions on teen patrons after a large brawl in the summer that began in a food court bathroom, according to a story in The Baltimore Sun. However, a spokeswoman for the company that owns White Marsh Mall said mall managers currently do not have plans to require adult accompaniment for juveniles. Other news reports noted that malls are battling increasing competition from online sales and do not want to lose valuable foot traffic.
Asked what the Post Mall’s policy on young patrons might be, mall spokeswoman Kate Sirignano would not comment, saying only that if additional steps are warranted, they will be put in place in the next two weeks. Asked how much money mall stores lost due to the early closing Wednesday, she said no one has tallied a figure.