Chaos unfolded at a California shopping mall as a group of teenagers brazenly raced through a food court on dirt bikes.
The suspects, all believed to be minors, drove two motorcycles at high speed through the Town Center Mall in Valencia, Santa Clarita, on Saturday. In a tragic turn of events, police belive that one of the riders, a 14-year-old boy, was killed that same evening following a head one collision just two miles from the shopping center.
Cellphone footage, which has been circulating online, shows the rambunctious riders hurtling through a food court amongst pedestrians – including a group of children eating in a booth.
The riders, which include two drives and one teen sitting on the back of the bike, were filmed sporting dark clothing without helmets, flailing their arms, and revving their motors through the mall.
Chris Hernandez, a restaurant manager at the mall, said the suspects managed to evade mall security adding it was slow to respond.
“It was loud. I saw the motorcycles come up through the mall,” Hernandez told local news station KTLA. “To me, it’s a big no-no because there’s little kids all over the place and somebody’s going to end up getting hurt.”
Another food court employee said they’d seen other instances of dirt bikes being ridden through the mall in the past year.
No arrests have yet been made, but the motorcyclists could face felony charges, according to Sergeant Guillermo Martinez of the LA CO Sheriff’s Office.
He said that authorities will be taking a “zero-tolerance approach,” telling the news station: “If we see it, we will either cite, confiscate, arrest or impound depending on what the circumstances are, but we are ramping up enforcement.”
The Sheriff’s Office said it will send out special enforcement teams on ATVs and motorcycles to chase down rogue riders, many of whom are believed to have been bought the bikes as gifts over the holidays.
Deputy Robert Jensen, spokesman for the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, said that officials have been made aware of the video circulating on social media but could not confirm that the child who was killed was one of the riders in the video.
The victim’s identity has not yet been disclosed by authorities.
However, a woman who has identified herself as the aunt of the victim told The Santa Clarita Valley Signal that she could identify her nephew as the driver of the first dirt bike in the food court footage.
A 14-year-old boy riding a dirt bike was involved in the traffic accident after riding on the wrong side of the road at the intersection of Railroad Avenue and Oak Ridge Drive at about 9.49 p.m. on Saturday evening, according to Jensen.
