MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. — Maryland Heights' Aquaport is usually filled with the sounds of splashing and laughs providing a family-friendly outing in these hot summer days.
But Saturday night, teens felt a experienced a kind of heat: the burn of pepper spray and sparks from a stun gun.
"They all started screaming like someone was dying, and they started running the opposite way," Jana Gamble said.
Gamble was at Aquaport just a few minutes after the special teens-only event ending — picking up her 14-year-old daughter and two friends — when two other girls started fighting in the parking lot.
Video on social media shows the fight for about 15 seconds, then an officer tells the kids surrounding the fight to "get back." Almost immediately, the recording picks up the sound of stun guns clicking, teens screaming and girls crying.
"I'm trying to call my daughter, her phone hung up," Gamble said. "I'm worried. I don't know where the other girls are. And all I see is the cops moving forward with their taser guns activating them. I said, 'This is not safe. Why are you activating pepper spray and mace for two little girls fighting? What's going on?'"
We reached out to Maryland Heights police who confirmed a "police officer broke up one fight using pepper spray on the participants, and other officers sounded their tasers to disperse the loud crowd."
Gamble said she wants the department to look at their policies, and she is talking to her own daughter about what to do if she's in this kind of situation again.
"This breaks my heart, to see all these children in fear," Gamble said.
The City of Maryland Heights released the following statement:
"At the end of a mostly peaceful Teen Night, fights and other disturbances broke out on the parking lot with hundreds of guests on the scene. A female Maryland Heights police officer broke up one fight using pepper spray on the participants, and other officers sounded their tasers to disperse the loud crowd. Order was restored in less than 15 minutes, no injuries were reported and nobody was detained by police. We will be looking at the body camera footage to determine if our officers on the scene responded appropriately and to determine what if any changes could be made to control crowds at future events.
We cannot comment further until the incident report is submitted and body camera footage is reviewed.
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