BETHANY BEACH, Del. - After a fight between two teenaged boys drew a crowd of over 300 people Wednesday night and two people allegedly set fireworks off on the boardwalk, injuring one, Bethany Beach Police arrested three teens. The department posted online to remind parents that their kids are not supposed to be out past 11 p.m. due to a curfew in place.
Just after 10:15 p.m. Wednesday, police said that seasonal officers witnessed a fight between two boys on Garfield Beach. The fight was quicky encircled by a group estimated to include over 300 teenagers who began "chanting, yelling, and enticing the two" to fight.
A group estimated to include over 300 teenagers gathered and began yelling after a fight broke out between two boys on Wednesday night in Bethany Beach. Courtesy Bethany Beach Police Department.
Once separated by Bethany Beach police officers, the boys gave statements. During this time, police say a uniformed officer was attacked from behind and a suspect tried to take his baton from his hip. After chasing the 18-year-old suspect, two officers took him into custody. As they walked him to the boardwalk, police say the "volatile crowd of teenagers began chanting and enticing officers."
Multiple officers responded for crowd control and officer safety. The crowd was relocated off the beach onto the bandstand and boardwalk area and five officers remained in the area for ongoing crowd control.
Multiple police officers responded for crowd control to move over 300 teens off of Bethany Beach Wednesday night. Courtesy Bethany Beach Police Department.
Shortly afterwards at 10:30 p.m., police say an unknown person lit an "extremely large" ground based sprinkler firework display in the middle of the boardwalk that lasted nearly a minute. The fireworks damaged the boardwalk and caused nearly 100 people still in the area to begin running to avoid being burned or hit by the fireworks.
A second fireworks display, this one a mortar style, was set off around 10:40 p.m. Police say this firework shot off an aerial spray that left remnants in a 50-yard radius. There was "significant panic and distress" to the crowds and multiple bystanders were reported to be struck and burned by the display.
Officers on scene obtained victim information and assessed injured people, including a 17-year-old girl from Rockville, Md., who suffered burn marks along her hip and rib cage. She was treated on scene.
Though officers were originally unable to identify the suspects due to the large crowd, they eventually determined who the two people were that they say lit the fireworks by reviewing town security footage in their patrol cars. The information was issued to all officers on the scene who then took an 18-year-old boy from Falls Church, Va., into custody without further incident. Officers say they tried to restrain another identified suspect who resisted arrest and ran away, but was later found by officers seven blocks north and was then taken into custody.
Three arrests were made with charges including disorderly conduct by fighting or threatening behavior and underage possession/consumption of alcohol. One 18-year-old boy from Newark faces these charges. The 18-year-old from Virginia was additionally charged with sale or possession of fireworks and for property damage less than $1,000. An 18-year-old boy from Selbyville was also additionally charged with possession of fireworks and property damage as well as with possession of personal use quantity of marijuana.
"Parents, if you were curious as to why we bumped our juvenile curfew up to 11 p.m., this is why," the police department said online. "Let's do better. This is unacceptable to our town, businesses, hotels, and guests."
