Three teenagers charged as footage of the Westfield Marion moment that triggered mayhem emerges
Three teenagers have been arrested and charged as footage of the moment a fight between two groups of teens that sparked mayhem at Westfield Marion emerges.
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Three teenagers have been charged as footage of the moment a fight between two groups of teens sparked total chaos at Westfield Marion on Sunday.
The three boys, two aged 15 and one 16, of Mitchell Park, Morphett Vale and Adelaide, were arrested and charged with assault, affray and aggravated robbery.
Police also seized two expandable batons.
Video obtained by 7NEWS shows the events which would eventually lead to the lockdown of the centre with shoppers fearful as STAR Group officers stormed in just after 3pm Sunday.
The video was shot inside the food court of Westfield Marion and shows two groups of youths fighting before a lockdown of the shopping centre.
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• Everything we know on the fight and lockdown
• Shoppers recount Westfield Marion terror
• Charged teens in court as cause of fight revealed
Shoppers can be seen running and those involved in the altercation are yelling in the incident.
On Monday, South Australia’s largest shopping centre was back to business as usual less than 24 hours after it was evacuated.
Coffee shops and major retailers opened as usual for the day with hundreds of specialty stores set to follow.
Ground zero of the fracas that sparked the frantic scenes – the food court – was open, with early morning customers and workers in the centre getting coffees.
There remains no sign of the chaos that broke out about 3pm when two groups of what police say were teens – some armed with weapons – converged.
Members of the Westfield Walkers group were among the early morning customers at the food court which, for them, is business as usual.
The group walks the centre about three times a week before the main trading hours, and had no concerns about their safety.
They said the number of shoppers in the centre was about usual for a Monday morning.
Several security guards have been patrolling inside the centre.
A mother who was in a cinema with her young daughter when the chaos unfolded said moviegoers were left to learn about a potential threat themselves while the film continued to screen in the dark.
Alysha Larcombe was celebrating her birthday with a trip to the cinema with her husband and five-year-old daughter to watch Despicable Me 4 before the family was ushered onto a rooftop.
She said her immediate focus was on keeping her daughter calm and “feeling safe” while armed STAR group officers flooded the rooftop where cinema goers were stuck.
They had little option but to take to social media for information, where the rumour mill was in full swing.
Ms Larcombe said the ordeal started while the family’s full attention was on the movie when suddenly audience members started to become agitated.
“Somebody behind us got up and just started saying we have to leave … and it seemed like someone was watching something on their phone,” she said.
“Everyone was saying surely if we had to leave the movie would stop and the lights would come on.”
Ms Larcombe said moviegoers in the cinema couldn’t hear any alerts to leave but suspected some closer to the doors may have heard a speaker announcement from outside the building or found an alert online.
“People in our cinema started to push open the emergency door,” she said.
“It was then we thought ‘wow, this could be serious’.”
She said the group left via the emergency exit onto the roof and watched STAR Group officers enter the complex as security arrived to direct the crowd to stay on the roof.
“We were asked if we saw kids run through where we were on the roof and we thought ‘oh God’ … we were hearing all different things like there were machetes, there was a gun … the rumour mill was going pretty strong,” she said.
Ms Larcombe said while her exit was orderly, a friend of hers was in another movie screening and her child was “trampled” in a panicked exit.
She said it wasn’t until after when the family got home they realised how confronting the experience might have been for their daughter.
However, she did not think centre management overreacted and said following the stabbing attack at Westfield Bondi Junction earlier this year, which left six people dead, that it was reassuring security sprung into action with a threat identified.
However, she was critical of the cinema’s response with audience members left to orchestrate their own evacuation.
An Event Cinema spokesperson defended the execution of Sunday’s evacuation.
“We can confirm that the Event Cinemas Marion emergency procedure was correctly followed, and was part of Westfield Marion’s emergency evacuation trigger arrangements and centre-wide announcement,” they said.
“We take the safety of all our customers and team seriously, and our safety program includes a periodic and regular review of emergency protocols, in conjunction with various third party experts.
“All customers affected by interrupted or cancelled movie sessions will receive a refund.”
Ms Larcombe said that she hoped those responsible for the chaos would not walk away with “just a slap on the wrist”.
Premier Peter Malinauskas defended the response of Westfield security amid claims centre management had overreacted and lauded the quick police action.
“I think it’s easy to say with hindsight it was an over-reaction,” he said.
“I think the reality is post Bondi there is a heightened sense of alert from Westfield and shopping centre operators, which is understandable.
“They’ve gone through Bondi, they would have put in their own procedures post that … imagine if it ended up being very serious and they hadn’t escalated their concern quickly, then everyone would be scrutinising that.
“While I get the legitimacy of concerns that have been raised about it being an over-reaction, I’m loath to pile in on them.”
Mr Malinauskas said the scrutiny should be on the suspects whose actions caused the chaos.
“We are asking questions about where Westfield overreacted or could have communicated more quickly, it’s not their fault it happened,” he said.
“It’s because a group of young muppets who decided to get into a brawl in a food court over goodness knows what, they are the ones who deserve scrutiny over their actions.”
On Monday, police confirmed three teenagers had been arrested over the incident. Two of them appeared in the Adelaide Youth Court on Monday, with the third expected to appear in the Christies Beach Youth Court on Monday.
Assistant Police Commissioner Scott Duval said no one was injured as a result of the altercation but two people sustained injuries in the evacuation.
“I’m aware that in the evacuation process we had a female who I believe is 77 might have fallen and suffered a fracture,” Mr Duval said.
“I also understand there was a young girl around the age of 14 who again might have been injured.”
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