A viral video showing heavy police presence around Bayside Marketplace in Miami on New Year’s Day made many speculate that aliens had visited the mall to ring in 2024 – but what really caused the commotion?
Police confirmed that they were there to dissolve a large fight that broke out between a group of about 50 teenagers, which resulted in multiple arrests.
Yet some people had their own theories and posted on social media days after the incident, suggesting what really was going on to attract all the blue lights.
The most popular conspiracy: aliens had taken a visit to the mall.
Much to the disappointment of UFO spotters and extraterrestrial enthusiasts, the City of Miami Police Department put the theories to bed, telling NBC6 there were “No aliens, UFOs, or ET’s. No airports were closed. No power outages.”
“Nothing is being withheld from the public. LOL,” the Miami Police Department public information officer Michael Vega wrote to NBC in an email.
Clips taken from the viral video were reshared on social media, claiming that an eight-to-ten-foot alien could be seen at the mall on New Year’s Day.
The low-quality clip appears to show a tall glowing figure near police vehicles, although other users on X pointed out it is likely to be, in fact, two to three people walking next to each other.
“10ft Aliens/Creatures (caught on camera?) fired at inside and outside Miami Mall, media silent, cops are covering it up saying kids were fighting with fireworks, yet all these cop cars, & air traffic stopped that night except for black military choppers,” one user claimed on X, amongst an onslaught of other conspiracy posts and memes poking fun at the ‘Miami Mall alien’ as the video went viral.
Others, however, were not so convinced, with one user writing, “Everybody have cell phones, but nobody have an up close video of the 8-10 foot alien by the Miami mall?”
Instead of an alien invasion, a huge group of juveniles were being dealt with by the large police fleet, who allegedly were also setting off fireworks, causing panic across the mall, an arrest report said according to the outlet.
The chaos that ensued disrupted and damaged businesses in the area.
While no aliens were taken in for questioning, four teenagers had been arrested.
The huge brawl broke just before 8.30pm on New Year’s Day; police were called to the mall to quell the situation.
The fireworks being set off were also mistaken as gunshots, which caused a local resident to report an active shooter, the president of Downtown Neighbors Alliance, James Torres, said in a statement about the incident.
“Some officers were heavily armed and approached the crowd displaying high-powered rifles, reflecting the fact that officers were initially erroneously told the situation involved an active shooter,” Mr Torres said, according to NBC6.
One nearby resident, Ryan Landy, told CBS News that he witnessed the melee after he “heard a lot of successive shots or pops.”
“There’s a big crowd of people running outside of Bayside and then we hear a commotion and now they’re just running through the streets, running between cars, almost getting hit by cars, it was absolute chaos,” he said.
The Miami Police Department later confirmed on X that the sounds were fireworks and no shots were fired.
