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300-plus teens fighting at Kings Dominion's Halloween Haunt was 'mass chaos,' deputy says

Wills: 'Don't just drop your kids off and leave them at Kings Dominion like it's a daycare'
Kings Dominion Fights
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DOSWELL Va. — A massive fight that broke out during Kings Dominion's Halloween Haunt Saturday night was "mass chaos," according to authorities.

Sgt. Steve Wills with the Hanover County Sheriff's Office said roughly 300 teens were fighting outside the park's arcade.

Wills said the number of teens outweighed deputies and that some young people retreated into restaurants and then flipped over tables. He said the crowd was so large that de-escalation was law enforcement's goal.

Sgt. Steve Wills
Sgt. Steve Wills

"We had eight off-duty officers assigned to Kings Dominion," Wills said. "We had to bring in six more off the road to try to contain this environment to try to force these individuals out of the park."

It was an effort that proved effective enough to avoid any arrests.

"There were a lot of pop-fights and disturbances from around the park as we were trying to push these people out," Wills said. "It was 11 p.m., almost 2 hours before we had it fully secured and contained and under control again."

A parent of a worker at the park told CBS 6 that there were reports of "multiple stabbings and a gun brandished at the arcade area."

However, Wills said that no one was stabbed. Additionally, while there were "multiple reports of firearm possessions," Willis said deputies did not see any weapons.

"A lot of the stuff circulating out there in the community right now is false. It's not true," Wills said. "There were no firearms that we dealt with and there were no knives or stabbings... We had some disorderly individuals and that is what this was."

Wills said this was the second night that something like this happened at the theme park.

Kings Dominion Communications Director Geoff Zindren said in a statement Sunday evening that rides and outdoor attractions were temporarily shut down as storms moved through the area.

"A minor physical altercation occurred among some juveniles seeking refuge in the park's Candy Apple Grove area, but was quickly halted by the security team and parties involved were subsequently banned from the park," Geoff Zindren wrote. "Normal operations resumed once the weather cleared the area. At no point were any weapons used or found to be inside the park."

Wills pleaded for cooperation from parents.

"Don't just drop your kids off and leave them at Kings Dominion like it's a daycare," Wills said. "Be there be present with them and get a handle on that behavior before it becomes a problem that we have to address."

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News of the fights at Kings Dominion's comes after Busch Gardens Williamsburg implemented a chaperone policy for Howl-O-Scream on Friday. As a result, anyone under 16 needs to have a chaperone who is 21 or older to enter the park.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg's new chaperone policy, which will continue through Sunday, Nov. 3, comes after a teenager told police he was stabbed at the park Saturday night.

Police were called about a fight reported in the France area of the park. When officers arrived, the people involved in the altercation had left, according to police. But shortly, an 18-year-old man came up to officers at the entrance of the park and said he had been stabbed.

The incident came after police responded to a different altercation during the opening weekend of Howl-O-Scream. That disturbance started as a verbal dispute between two large groups of people, mostly children and young adults, who were in line for rides near the park's entrance, according to police.

Kings Dominion announced a similar policy last April where anyone under 16 would need to have a chaperone 21 or older to be in the park after 4 p.m.

"The safety of our guests and associates has always been our top priority at Kings Dominion," the park posted on their website and social media at the time. "Over the past two years, there have been increasing incidents of unruly and inappropriate behavior across our industry and at other major entertainment venues."

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