PEORIA IL December 19 2020— A fight at Northwoods Mall the day after Christmas escalated to involve 200 juveniles and adults across both shopping levels and outside in the parking lot, causing Peoria police to deploy pepper balls and close down the mall.
"Groups of kids got unruly and started to fight," Peoria Police spokesman Amy Dotson said Sunday. "What started as 50 kids and some adults escalated as more carloads of people showed up. It reached about 200 and fights were ongoing on both levels of the mall.
"At that point, officers fired pepper balls into the ground to disperse the crowd and get the skirmishes under control."
Groups apparently were fighting inside the mall near a food court, and as security moved them out of the mall, the fights grew in the parking lot area.
Demario Boone, director of school safety at Peoria Public Schools, was working as a part-time mall security officer Saturday and was there amid the fray.
Boone, on his personal Facebook page, described the event:
"I have to tell you first hand the restraint that the Peoria Police and our team had in the midst of this, was remarkable. With adults and children trying their hardest to fight one another, adults driving vehicles near crowds and just jumping out to get involved, kids flat out refusing to leave while get in adults and officers faces, kids screaming at the top of their lungs yelling profanity and egging on a fight to happen, kids walking up on officers in a threatening manner, adults walking up on officers to fight, etc.
"I don't know how many times I pleaded with an adult to just get in their vehicles, take kids, and leave. We begged CHILDREN to simply walk away and not fight, only to be met with profanity and physical aggression. Folks yelling and spitting in our faces (putting us in danger of COVID mind you) when we did not want any arrested. A young person simply yelled 'We don't give a (expletive) about jail, (expletive) the police!.' This young man looked no older than 12.
"I'm telling you from what I saw, Peoria Police exercised SO much restraint in the midst of this."
Dotson said there were multiple arrests, but all were juveniles who were later released to their parents. She was not able to define specifically how many arrests were made.
There was one juvenile transported to a hospital as a precaution, with a minor injury suffered while running through the crowd.
The fights began at 5:42 p.m. on Saturday and lasted for about an hour. Police closed the mall down after that for the rest of the night.
Northwoods Mall reopened for business on Sunday.
It has been the site of several other large-scale brawls in recent years, including two in close proximity in November 2017. Police opened a substation at the mall in 2018.
A call to Northwoods Mall general manager Ryan Whalen was not immediately returned Sunday evening. His office hours are not normally kept on Sundays.
A Facebook message to Boone was not immediately returned.
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