SACRAMENTO—Sacramento police arrested an 18-year-old man after a large fight broke out in the Arden Fair Mall food court on Friday evening, December 26.
Oscar Armendarez was taken into custody for resisting arrest. A 17-year-old boy was also arrested, but his name is being withheld because he is a minor. Armendarez and the second teen are facing resisting arrest charges.
The mall, which normally closes at 9:00 p.m., closed its doors at 7:30 p.m. following the fight.
“A whole bunch of people got up and started running, and everybody was fighting and the security officers (were) tackling people” said Kelcie Acuna, who was at the mall when the fight broke out. Acuna said she saw close to a dozen people lined up in handcuffs shortly after the fight.
Fortunately, there was a large presence of law enforcement at the mall because it was the day after Christmas. Both mall security and police had to break up the fight that involved 20 or more people.
Dremon O’Deal and Louis Santiago were arrested in 2012 at an Arden Fair Mall fight.
The brawl came two years to the day after the mall was evacuated when there were reports of shots fired during a fight in the food court. Two men, 19-year-old Dremon O’Deal and 18-year-old Louis Santiago, were taken into custody after the incident in December 2012. An unidentified 15-year-old was also arrested.
Mall security manager Steve Reed told media that his team learned from this similar scare two years ago and took swift action to keep shoppers safe in this fight. “Just like two years ago somebody said it was shots fired, and we were a little more proactive this time. We evacuated the mall when that happened. We kind of funneled them downstairs. In the meantime, a planter box fell down, which someone determined to be shots fired” he commented on the false report of gunfire in the 2012 incident.
Police said no shots were fired during these fights, and no one was hurt. Arden Fair Mall reopened Saturday morning as scheduled.
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