An Old-Fashioned Mall Brawl In Aurora Caused Shutdown & Evacution

By Stephen Gossett in News on Dec 27, 2016 4:32PM

Today in “kids these days” news, a west suburban shopping center was temporarily closed and evacuated on Monday evening when an old-fashioned, throwback mall brawl broke out in the lower level of Fox Valley Mall, in Aurora.

Police were called by mall security about, yep, a group of unruly teens. When they arrived, they found a pretty robust pushing-and-shoving match—with a sprinkling of plastic bottle-throwing—in the food court. There were no serious injures, but the melee was still pretty sizable: some 75 officers responded and roughly 1000 people had gathered around to watch.

Police said that seven juveniles were arrested and more were questioned, according to ABC7.

Of course, this wouldn’t be a proper “kids these days” story if teen bystanders didn’t film and share it all for posterity:

As much as anachronistic as a mall brawl seems in 2016—not unlike malls themselves—apparently this was something of a minor epidemic over the holiday weekend, as similar fracases broke out all across the country, with particularly ugly ones in New York, New Jersey and North Carolina. Apparently, some traditions literally won’t go down without a fight.

Update, 4 p.m.:
Eight teens have been charged in the fight, the Daily Herald reports.

A 17-year-old girl was charged with battery and resisting police. A 15-year-old girl was charged with resisting police and disorderly conduct. Two girls, ages 13 and 15, was charged with battery, as was a 15-year-old boy. Two boys, both 14, and a girl, 16, was charged with obstructing police.