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Brooklyn Mall Bans Unaccompanied Minors After Rowdy Teens Cause Chaos
By
Ben Yakas
Published Dec 28, 2013
Modified Dec 28, 2013
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Dec 28, 2013
Modified Dec 28, 2013
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On Thursday, there was utter pandemonium at Kings Plaza Mall in Brooklyn as hundreds of teenagers ran wildly through the shopping center, screaming, roughhousing and allegedly shoplifting. In response to the chaos, the mall only allowed teens under 18 inside on Friday if they came with an adult. Extra officers assigned to the mall were checking IDs outside the gates, and unaccompanied minors were asked to leave.
The chaos started after a Facebook post in which teens were urged to put Kings Plaza “on tilt” blew up. Fights broke out at the mall between several girls, while others grabbed at shoppers' bags and broke items in stores. "They had pepper spray. We attacked them because they attacked us,” Breeanah Thomas, 15, told CBS about confrontations with security. "They thought they were going to run us out, but they didn’t run me out."
"They just started fighting, throwing stuff off balconies," Lequan Jackson, a Macy's employee, told ABC. "I was just like I hope they don't come to my store." Keishawn Gibson, one of the witnesses who shot video of the brawl on his cell phone, told NBC there were multiple fights breaking out: "There was another fight in the other section of the mall, the same floor," he said. "There was another fight in the corner. There was just a lot of stuff happening at one time. It was just chaos. Everybody was just running from different directions, everyone was getting bumped, people was falling. It was madness."
Gibson thinks it's unfair that he has been banned from the mall as a result of the mall's new policy: "It wasn't everybody's fault, so for you to just ban everybody 17 and under is drastic," said Gibson.
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kings plaza mall
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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