The Los Cerritos Center mall was briefly placed on "semi-lockdown'' after tempers flared during the pre-dawn dash for Black Friday bargains.
Police said a half-dozen males got into a fight around 2:20 a.m. near a Disney store and others in the mall mistook the ruckus for gunfire.
"People thought they heard gunshots, but what they heard was chairs hitting the floor," Sgt. Ciro Racowschi of the sheriff's Cerritos Station said.
"People thought they heard gunshots, but what they heard was chairs hitting the floor," Sgt. Ciro Racowschi of the sheriff's Cerritos Station said.
"Deputies contained the mall in semi-lockdown and did a walk-through, but they were unable to locate the people who were fighting," Racowschi said.
The mall was full of people for Black Friday and "the parking lot was packed, like during a regular weekend day, but it was after midnight," Racowschi said.
A Los Cerritos Center website bills the Midnight Madness event as "insane."
No arrests were made and no injuries were reported.
Copyright CNS - City News Service
