Police: 4 juveniles arrested after fight leads officers to converge on Bayside Marketplace

MIAMI – A large police presence was spotted at Bayside Marketplace late Monday night, which ultimately led to four arrests.

According to the suspects’ arrest reports, officers were called to the area in reference to a large group of juveniles who were “causing a riot inside the mall.”

Police said the kids were lighting fireworks and “causing panic.”

Witnesses told Local 10 News that some of the juveniles were throwing fireworks at each other and into the air.

According to the reports, the group entered multiple businesses and caused damage to the stores. Police said a large fight also broke out between the juveniles, some of whom may have been armed with some kind of sticks.

Bayside business owner Sam Amin says this happens every year during the New Year’s holiday.

“As you can see, (they’re) running around, they start breaking things -- it was just really bad,” he said.

Amin took cellphone video of the chaos before deciding to pack up and leave.

“It is really bad for business -- when people see this, they just leave,” he said.

Some businesses were asked to temporarily close in order to allow officers to clear the mall.

Police said officers had to shut down six blocks down Biscayne Boulevard as they worked to get the situation under control.

As the juveniles were forced out of Bayside by police, they went to the west, further into downtown Miami, where Local 10 News observed rowdy crowds that police were attempting to disburse.

Police said a short time later another disturbance was reported inside a nearby 7-Eleven involving a group of juveniles.

As an officer escorted about 50 juveniles away from the area, he spotted 10 to 15 juveniles jumping a victim near Southeast Third Avenue and Second Street, authorities said.

Police said the group ran away, but four juvenile males were apprehended inside a nearby parking garage.

Police said the victim identified two of the males who were detained as being involved in the attack. According to their arrest reports, they are both 15 years old. One is from Opa-locka and the other is from Miami.

According to the arrest reports, the victim told police that he was driving in the area when he believed a bottle was thrown at his vehicle, striking the passenger side.

He said he got out of his car to inspect it for damage and asked who threw the bottle.

Police said one teen came forward and said he threw it.

While arguing with the teen, the victim was jumped by multiple juveniles, authorities said.

Video posted to social media by Only In Dade shows the attack on the victim.

The victim told police that some of the suspects also entered his vehicle at some point and stole his iPhone 13 Pro Max from his center console.

Miami police confirmed Tuesday morning that four juveniles had been arrested in total -- the two 15-year-olds were arrested on charges of burglary of an unoccupied conveyance, grand theft, battery and resisting an officer without violence, and the other two -- a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old, both from Miami -- were arrested on a single charge of resisting an officer without violence.

The mother of one of the 15 year old’s arrested told Local 10 News reporter Christina Vazquez that her son is a good student who was with his friends Monday night.

“He was, like, with 40 of his friends,” she said.

The mother said she’s not convinced that her son played the active role that police allege in his arrest form.

“I feel like I ain’t going to say that he probably didn’t do it, but I know he was with the ones who did it though,” she said.

Local 10 News did attempt to contact mall management via a contact form on the Bayside Marketplace’s website to share the concern we heard from several business owners about what they say is an annual security issue, but have not heard back at the time of publishing.