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.