Dartmouth Police: Mall Incident Not a Shooting

DARTMOUTH — After an altercation at the Dartmouth Mall on Saturday caused a shooting scare, police are asking residents to stop spreading misinformation online.

Dartmouth police clarified on social media that reports of a shooting at the town's mall over the weekend are false, and that although an altercation took place, no shots were fired.

"There is some chatter circulating on the Internet that there was a shooting at the Mall today," a Saturday evening post on the department's Facebook page read.

Police said that there was a physical altercation between several males at Macy's in which a glass counter and a few mirrors were broken.

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However, police stated, investigators verified that no firearms were present and no gunshots were fired.

The post noted, "any information reporting that there was a shooting is false," and should therefore not be shared.

No arrests were made in the incident, a department spokesperson confirmed.

Lakeville resident Michael Giardini said he was leaving the AMC theater at the mall on Saturday with his son and his son's friends when he heard the disturbance.

"We heard — it sounded like pops or banging, then glass crashing," he said, describing how hundreds ran for the exits. "People were trampling each other, people were crying."

Giardini said others warned him there was a shooter in the mall as they ran, and that he and other mallgoers warned people outside not to go in.

He described the scene as "complete chaos."

"It was like the running of the bulls," he said. "It was scary."

In the post, police asked residents to verify information from trusted sources before sharing stories online, in order to prevent the spread of misinformation.