A month after a huge melee at Arbor Place forced the Douglasville mall to close early, police announced the arrests of five more people connected to the incident.
According to authorities, four minors and one adult have been arrested since a collection of Douglas County government leaders held a news conference pleading with local parents to get their teenagers under control.
The adult who was arrested, 33-year-old Brittany Sanders, is the mother of one of the four minors arrested, police said. She is charged with obstruction and giving a false name to officers after police said she lied to them about her name and her child’s name. The four youths have each been charged with disorderly conduct and affray.
Sanders was arrested Tuesday and has since been released from the Douglas jail on $2,000 bond.
The arrest is the second time in recent months that a Douglasville mother was accused of misleading police and taken into custody alongside her child.
In July, Joshua Blakely, 17, was arrested on a murder charge related to the shooting of another 17-year-old boy, Douglasville police said. His mother, Lakeisha Blakely, was also arrested on charges of obstruction and tampering with evidence, among others.
At the news conference Sept. 20, Douglasville police Chief Gary Sparks warned the community to expect more arrests after the melee, which involved as many as 200 people, most of them teenagers. Police believe the fracas started with a $3 Saturday movie promotion at Arbor Place’s Regal theater. No one was seriously injured in the fighting, police said.
The five people charged this week join 20 who were previously arrested. One adult was among those 20, but the rest ranged in age from 12 to 17, police said. Nine of the suspects were charged with violating Georgia’s Street Gang and Terrorism Prevention Act.
In Thursday’s announcement about the additional arrests, police said the investigation remains ongoing, which leaves open the possibility of more arrests.
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