Large brawl erupts inside Fashion Fair Mall, resulting in two stabbings

A big brawl broke out inside Fashion Fair Mall on Saturday with approximately 15 people involved in the fight.

As a result, two juveniles were stabbed and one adult was detained.

Fresno Police Lt. Brian Valles said the violence occurred around 6:20 p.m. inside the mall and just outside of the JCPenney store.

Additional police, beyond the three officers who are assigned to work at the mall, were called to the scene because of reports of a stabbing.

One stabbing victim was found and transported to Fresno Community Regional Medical Center.

Another stabbing victim showed up at the hospital while police were at the scene of the stabbing and believe that victim suffered his wounds due to the brawl at the mall, too.

No customers or employees at the mall were injured, police said.

The two injured juveniles, whose exact ages were not immediately known but were believed to be 16 to 17 years old, suffered non-life threatening wounds to the upper body, Valles said.

At least one of the juveniles is from out of town. Both were uncooperative with police, Valles said.

Police said prior to the fight, the two groups had been exchanging words with each other — possibly throughout the day.

Police are reviewing video from mall surveillance to determine what exactly happened and why.

A folding knife was found expanded and behind the mall.

But the knife did not appear to match the type of wounds suffered by the two juveniles, leading officers to believe that the weapon used during the stabbing still was outstanding.

Police still were trying to determine if the man who was detained had attacked the juveniles with a knife or if he was acting in self defense.

Continued violence at Fashion Fair

Saturday’s brawl and stabbing is the latest incident to happened at Fashion Fair Mall.

Even with police adding officers to patrol the northeast Fresno mall. On Saturday, one officer was assigned to work inside the mall and two others patrolled the parking lot.

Earlier this month, police had to shut down one of the entrances to the mall a group of teens approached a 16-year-old to demand for his belongings, then pulled out a gun after he resisted.

The also was the shooting inside the mall almost a year ago when shots were fired during a confrontation among patrons and part of the mall had to be evacuated.

“This is area and this mall is high volume, high traffic,” Valles said. “Incidents are going to occur. This mall is very, very busy.”

Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, who was the city’s former police chief, also responded to the latest act of violence at the mall.

He said he’s communicated with Chief Paco Balderrama about increasing police presence both inside and outside of the mall.

Dyer also said he plans to meet with the Fashion Fair management and security this coming week to develop a safety plan for the mall.

“I am extremely disturbed by the increase in violence at Fashion Fair mall with this latest stabbing,” Dyer said in a social media posting. “People should be able to enjoy their shopping experience and not have to worry about these types of incidents.”

This story was originally published March 12, 2022 at 8:35 PM.