Bradenton police release video of weekend 'teen takeover' on Riverwalk
Bradenton Police break up 'Teen Takeover'
The latest 'Teen Takeover' happened Saturday night along the Riverwalk in Bradenton. Fox 13's Ariel Plasencia reports.
BRADENTON, Fla. - Bradenton police broke up a ‘teen takeover’ involving up to 300 young people near the Riverwalk on Saturday.
Bradenton teen takeover details
What we know:
Investigators told FOX 13 an estimated 250 to 300 teens gathered along the Bradenton Riverwalk after 9 p.m. Saturday – noting the crowd started "forming pretty much after dark." Police estimate the group included young people ranging in age from about 13- to 18-years-old.
Because officers were aware of the gathering ahead of time, they were already in position. As the crowd grew, they decided to shut down Rossi Park and a nearby skate park.
In the video released by BPD Tuesday, officers can be heard telling the teens to go home and to call for rides.
"At nine in the evening, you may have families that are just going home for the evening. Or you may have people out enjoying the Riverwalk, walking when it's a little bit cooler outside," Bradenton police spokesperson Meredith Censullo said. "And so when these crowds encroach on the actual public space and make that space unusable for the community, we've got to step in, and that's what happened in this case."
But investigators say some people left the park and tried to gather at nearby businesses, including the Wawa and Domino’s Pizza on 1st St. Thanks to assistance by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, nobody from the large group got into the stores.
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"Again, you're impeding on the rest of the community just trying to do what they're trying to," Censullo added. "So we just want to make sure no one gets hurt, whether any of the kids or anyone else."
No serious incidents were reported, and no arrests were made.
"Fortunately, there were no fights, which is something that you tend to see a lot of times with these teen takeovers," Censullo said. "As you get groups of teenagers coming together, it's highly likely that there's going to be groups there that don't know each other or don't like each other. And then that's when you start to see the fights and things sort of escalate from there. So we wanted to prevent that from happening."
Bradenton police warned that they may shut down Rossi Park in advance if they receive word of future takeovers.
Similar Bay Area incidents
The backstory:
The Bradenton incident follows similar teen takeovers in the Bay Area, which are typically organized through social media.
In May, Tampa police broke up a takeover at Curtis Hixon Park, arresting 22 people, including a 12-year-old boy. Officers seized two firearms and charged some individuals with drug possession.
Previous Coverage: Tampa police establish a special event zone downtown to stop teen takeovers
Also in May, a 17-year-old was shot during a fight at a teen takeover at Clearwater Beach. Police have since arrested that teen on rioting charges.
Last week, Clearwater police announced the injured teen and another juvenile had been arrested, but police were still searching for four others.
As of Tuesday, all five juveniles are now in custody as officers continue to search for the 18-year-old.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from an interview with Bradenton Police spokesperson Meredith Censullo, who shared video of the teen takeover with FOX 13 Tuesday.