More than 70 minors were detained at the SouthBay Pavilion Mall on Saturday evening after a disturbance involving hundreds of juveniles, authorities said, and two youths accused of throwing fireworks at police were arrested. Deputies were sent to the mall at 20700 Avalon Blvd. on Saturday afternoon, Sgt.
K. Ay of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department’s Carson station said. A crowd gathered as a trash can was lit on fire outside the mall, sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Tracy Koerner said.
When deputies responded, the youths ran into the mall, a nearby strip mall and surrounding neighborhoods, he said. Some teens committed “sporadic thefts” of petty items as they ran through the mall, Koerner said. In a social media statement late Saturday, LASD said the disturbance involved about 200 juveniles and that the disturbance also involved illegal fireworks being set off in a store in the mall.
Related Articles “Carson deputies responded swiftly and issued dispersal orders. The group refused to comply, and surrounding law enforcement agencies responded to assist,” the statement said. After the deputies arrived, they spent about five hours getting the youths to leave, according to Ay.
The 73 juveniles who were detained were issued notices to appear in court for failure to disperse, according to sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Fulop. The additional two were arrested by Torrance police on suspicion of assault on a peace officer with a deadly weapon, he said.
Fulop said he had no additio.