Brawl At Ontario Mall Has Shoppers Running For Cover
ONTARIO (CBSLA) -- A fight between five to 12 people at the Ontario Mills Mall Saturday evening had shoppers running for cover.
Several witnesses said they heard gunfire but Ontario Police later discounted that report.
Update: OPD confirms no active shooting occurred at Ontario Mills Mall. There was a fight that had broken out and caused patrons to panic. Ontario Mills Mall is safe.
— Ontario Police Dept. (@OntarioPD) July 8, 2018
Police said a Taser was used during the fight that happened at the food court. People heard the Taser and ran, the people running, in turn, believed that there was an active shooter present.
"Hysteria" was created, according to police.
There were reports of some injuries caused by people trying to flee the scene. Most of the injuries were minor.
KCAL9's Cristy Fajardo called it "mass panic at a very crowded mall all over what turned out to be a false alarm."
Police told her the shape of the stun gun, or the sound, or both led people to believe a shooting was taking place.
Firefighters arrives on scene wearing bullet-proof equipment while police went from store-to-store.
One witness described the chaos for Fajardo.
"And everyone ran out towards the exits shouting "gun, gun.'" he said, "and everyone at the AMC ran out cause they heard 'gun.' inside. And long story short, everyone panicked and it was just a fight gone wrong, with a Taser."
No arrests were reported.