Lakeville Mom Wary of Mall of America After Near Riot

Cynthia Palmer and her 14-year-old daughter have a day after Christmas ritual: they go to the Mall of America and shop.

"We leave her brother and dad at home and head out and have a day together," said Palmer, a 46-year-old resident. "It's a great chance to have some mother and daughter time. We look for deals—giggle as we try totally hideous stuff on. It's a good time."

At least usually. Yesterday was different, Palmer told Lakeville Patch. It was so different they may never go back.

Around 5 p.m. Dec. 26, Palmer and her daughter were on the first floor of America's largest mall and had just come out of a store called Chico's when they heard a bunch of screaming.

"There was this massive crowd. Like 30 or 40 people that looked mostly like kids my daughter's age. I didn't know what to think at first, but then I saw people pushing and shoving and people were running," she said. "We quick ran across the hall to another store—I don't know which store it even was. It was scary. They were tossing over trash cans and just kind of rampaging through and fighting. People were being pushed into the windows as they passed. Others were banging on the windows and yelling."

According to a story in the Star Tribune, the crowd was actually a mob-like group of 200 "young people" who began a fight in the third-floor food court. Once police arrived, the large group splintered into smaller groups that raced through the mall, the report said. It took more than an hour for mall security and Bloomington Police to get the situation under control, the story said.

Palmer said employees at the store she was in locked their doors for a few minutes.

"I've never seen anything like it," she said. "My daughter was pretty shaken. Like, she doesn't want to go back, shaken."

According to the Star Tribune report, "several stores, including Nordstrom, closed internal gates to the mall court, and a few stayed closed for the evening, one of the busiest shopping days of the year."

The story also reported at least 10 juveniles and young adults were arrested by mall security and Bloomington Police on suspicion of disorderly conduct, and that Bloomington Police Commander Mark Stehlik said there have been no reports of stolen merchandise.

The Mall of America's Vice President for Public Relations Dan Jasper issued a statement saying the mall will be reviewing security efforts.

"Unfortunately, as we have witnessed at shopping sites across the country this week, large groups can come together and create bad situations."

Palmer is happy mall officials are going to review the situation.

"I know it's an isolated incident, I mean, it doesn't happen every day, but it was still kind of scary," Palmer said. "Those kids ... they could have done anything they wanted. There were so many of them."