Brawls Close United Center During Kids' Neighborhood Basketball Game

CHICAGO, IL — Fighting broke out Monday during a championship game between neighborhood basketball teams, causing security to cancel the event and shut down the United Center over safety concerns, according to reports. The fights happened at the West Haven Safe Summer League title game that featured players from Curie Metropolitan and Orr Academy high schools. Fortunately, both teams were able to safely leave the United Center, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

United Center security officials closed down the venue just after 5 p.m. Monday, Aug. 14, turning away the nearly 10,000 people who showed up for the free event, according to the Sun-Times. Fans forced to leave the arena then confronted the upset attendees outside who weren't able to get in to begin with, the report added.

Chicago police were called in to contain the chaos at the United Center. But no arrests were made during the incident, ABC 7 Eyewitness News reports. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news for the West Side and Chicago — or other neighborhoods. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

An organizer told the Sun-Times that 7,700 people attended last year's event, the biggest crowd ever for the tournament that has been played at West Side high schools near the United Center in the past.

"I didn’t expect that crowd. It kind of scared me," West Haven Summer League organizer Lefty B. Boyd said about Monday's event.

Sierra Sanders, a woman who was in the middle of the United Center brawls when they erupted, told ABC 7 that it felt like her bones were breaking as the fighting ensued. She described what she witnessed to the TV station:

"A couple guys got to fist fighting. Girls jumped in. It was a big brawl. It was humongous, like, maybe 200 people, all just scattered around. Everyone ran. They said they had a gun. I don't know what happened with that."

This isn't the first time fights have occurred during high school basketball games at the United Center this year. In March, a brawl broke out following McDonald's All-American Game, a nationally televised showcase of the country's best high school players. Summer league baskeball games in Chicago also have been the backdrop for violence this year, with fights reported at events, including the shoe company-sponsored Chi League, the Sun-Times reports.

WATCH: Witnesses captured cellphone video of the fights that broke out Monday evening at the United Center during a championship game between neighborhood basketball teams:

There has been no information concerning what sparked the fights, whether it was team rivalries escalating into fisticuffs or some other factors.

More via the Chicago Sun-Times and ABC 7 Eyewitness News

United Center (Photo By Jonathan Daniel | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images)

Like What You're Reading? Stay Patched In!

• Like our Crime page on Facebook
• Check out the Events Calendar for what’s going on