Wisconsin Police investigating if near riot at shopping mall organized on Facebook

[RamboLiberal]

Police in Wauwatosa, Wis., are looking into a fracas at the Mayfair Mall that could have begun on a social networking site.

The mall, which shut down early on Sunday, was overrun by dozens of unruly teens who ran screaming through the mall, scaring shoppers.

One shopper, Elsa Mercado, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that she was trying on clothes at an Ann Taylor Loft when she heard loud noises. When her sister tried to check on her, she told the newspaper, they discovered that some of the stores had brought down security gates.

"Someone was pounding on our door and saying, 'Please let me in. There's gunfire.' We unlocked the door and let him in. He was very frightened, he was very pale," Mercado told the newspaper.

In what could have been an unrelated incident, a gun was fired in the mall’s parking lot in an attempted armed robbery, a Wauwatosa police spokesperson confirmed to the Daily News.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/01/03/2011-01-03_wisconsin_cops_investigating_if_nearriot_at_mayfair_mall_was_organized_on_facebo.html#ixzz1A1Bzy6fZ

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Shafi said a Boston Store clerk told her that the incident occurred after a girl was accused of retail theft and the fracas spilled over into Boston Store.

"Her friends followed her and the security guard into the store, screaming, barking, yelling, and knocking over racks and displays. We were invited to stay and continue shopping," Shafi said in an e-mail. "But we decided to leave through the exit where police guards surrounded the building. The salespeople who stuck around were immensely professional and comforting as well."

Laura Hughes was in the Barnes & Noble bookshop when she heard screaming and the sound of a large group of people running. She walked out the second floor of the bookseller and "saw large sums of teenagers running towards Boston Store and going down the escalators to the first level. Mall security had been chasing some of the kids, followed by police officers, who were literally herding the kids downstairs."

People eating in the food court noticed lights dimming and going out before seeing security officers walking around.

Another shopper said she saw a group of young people flow out of the food court area on the mall's second floor and saw a security officer blow his whistle but no one reacted because the noise from the kids was much louder than the whistle. She said the kids were mostly young girls.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/112782034.html

[maxsolomon]

1. Part of me laughs, part of me cries.

also, the quoted shopper's last name is Mercado. this story verges on Art.

[PeaceNikki]

2. Maylay, fracas. I am enjoying the terms being used to describe this incident.

[RetroLounge]

3. I was there a few hours before it happened

At the same time of this "riot", there was an armed robbery attempt at the bus stop, and a gunshot.

Of course, the media is conflating the 2 and making it out to be a huge gunfight in the mall.

RL

[PeaceNikki]

4. Could you describe the ruckus, sir?

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

8. Hee. No, I left carrying my new printer and saw nothing.

not even a melee!

:hi:

RL

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

5. I don't think the term "fracard" gets used enough

Here was the perfect time to use it.

[Anakin Skywalker]

6. FaceBook. A useful tool to command idiots.

[Warren DeMontague]

7. Actually, I blame the invention of language, itself.

If people couldn't talk to each other, they'd never be able to plan these hijinks.