‘Over 300 youth' descend upon New Jersey mall, sparking massive brawl planned through TikTok: officials
Hundreds of youths descended upon a north Jersey mall Saturday night in a meet-up that was reportedly pre-planned on TikTok and led to a massive brawl.
Seven minors were arrested in the chaotic melee that was spurred by TikTok posts calling for juveniles to meet up at the Menlo Park Mall in Edison, New Jersey, that night, according to officials and local reports.
The out-of-control gathering soon grew exponentially from just 100 people to 'over 300 youth' from across the Garden State shortly after 8 p.m., Edison Mayor Sam Joshi wrote on social media.
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3 A 300-person brawl broke out at a mall in northern New Jersey on Saturday night.
Bloomberg via Getty Images
At least four of the seven minors who were arrested were from other towns, according to Joshi.
Edison police had to call for back-up from neighboring police departments to clear out the hooligans.
As cops worked to get the rowdy crowd under control, one officer fractured their ankle, Edison Police Chief Tom Bryan told My Central Jersey.
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None of the youths were injured and no weapons were recovered, cops said.
3 Seven minors were arrested by police at the mall.
tiktok.com/@juswannadisapear
Of the seven arrested, one was charged with aggravated assault on an officer, and six others face disorderly conduct charges. One person was charged with both disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, Bryan told the outlet.
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Some participating youth shared posts on TikTok and Instagram leading up to the swarm, telling people to show up at the mall at 7 p.m.
3 The meetup was loosely advertised in advance and went viral on social media.
Bloomberg via Getty Images
It's unclear if any of the posts advertised a fight or if it was intended for some other kind of event, but Bryan confirmed that TikTok played a role in the huge crowd.
One TikTok shared last Tuesday that pitched a 'Menlo Mall Linkup??' received over 9,000 likes and 156,000 views. The user posted about the meetup again on Thursday.
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Videos later capturing the chaotic scene quickly went viral on TikTok overnight as teens wreaked havoc, screaming and running from officers while they were making arrests.
Impromptu fights spurred by social media meet-ups have resulted in slews of minors being arrested in the last year.
In October, 'mass chaos' broke out at the Kings Dominion theme park just outside of Richmond, Va, following a social media callout. No one was arrested after 14 deputies responded to the scene.
In November, an armed teenage gangbanger lost hold of his gun during a fight at a mall in Long Island. A bystander kicked the weapon further away from the teen in a video released in early May.
The Post reached out to the Edison Police Department for comment.
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