A brawl involving hundreds of people at an Indianapolis mall has led to the shutdown of the AMC theater there as police have been called in. At about 7:30 p.m. Indianapolis time, a fight broke out in or near the movie theater, and drew in hundreds of people. It was rumored that the mall was also shut down, but management has since confirmed to local TV news station WTHR that it remains open.
The fight started in the AMC movie theater at the Castleton Square Mall in Indianapolis, eventually turning into an all-out brawl. Some witnesses at the scene also reported later that they heard gunshots but have not reported actually seeing a gun. The shots were reportedly heard outside of the theater, though police have told local reporters that they have not found a gun.
An Instagram video of the scene shows a fairly aggressive crowd refusing to disperse when approached by security to leave the area. At least one Indianapolis reporter, @JennieWTHR was live tweeting from the mall about the the progression of events as things unfolded. There were no arrests reported and the mall eventually closed as usual at 9 p.m.
@ChiliBowlNomNom @JennieWTHR I was there when it happened. It was pretty wild. They cleared out the movie theatre. Teenagers everywhere
— Jeff McGuinness (@jeffmcg88) January 4, 2015
There was a large gathering of young adults and teens tonight. It’d been brewing on the Internet for days, says IMPD Lt. Eden.
— Adam Wren (@adamwren) January 4, 2015
The mall has been plagued by violence in the past 18 months.
Police have been trying to disperse the crowd at the same Indianapolis mall where a huge brawl broke out back in October. According to WTHR , the October fight was also in the AMC parking lot, but closer to midnight. It took dozens of security and law enforcement officials to break up that fight in which two teenagers were arrested.
A video of that fight was later posted on YouTube .
In March of last year, five teenagers were arrested at the mall and two guns were confiscated after a fight broke out and eventually spread to the parking lot of a nearby McDonald’s. Another Indianapolis mall, Circle Center, was the scene where a 17-year-old fired a weapon.
The malls do have events that draw huge crowds at certain points during the year, and are a large draw for Indianapolis teenagers looking for fun on a Saturday night.
