Fight broke out among several hundred teens after annual tree lighting at Cleveland's Public Square

CLEVELAND — Teens caused trouble on Cleveland’s Public Square after the annual WinterLand tree lighting this past weekend.

Cleveland police said several hundred unaccompanied juveniles were told to disperse while officers worked to maintain order in the area.

Last year, a shooting wounded two boys. Last weekend, police say girls fighting spawned other fights among several hundred teenagers.

Just last week, News 5 Investigators showed the security upgrades at Public Square ahead of the annual event.

New safety features added to Public Square.

Police Chief Annie Todd said that people she heard from saw officers all over the place keeping people safe, and when the fights broke out, they were on top of things.

Greg Palumbo, the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument Executive Director, showed News 5 what their surveillance cameras captured.

“You can see here, at about 7:54, things are fairly calm,” Palumbo said.

Seconds later, the surveillance video shows what appears to be chaos.

“But then they go running from Rebol,” Palumbo said.

Palumbo went to the WinterLand tree lighting with his family after wrapping up visits at the monument with Patriotic Santa.

“The square was full. We had a pretty good amount of people here at the monument so it was a very happy festive atmosphere,” Palumbo said.

He says he and his family felt safe on the square.

“There’s been a noted difference. It’s much, it has a much safer feeling downtown than it has the last couple of years,” Palumbo said.

But Downtown Cleveland, which upgraded security, like a new smart camera, closed down the ice rink just after 8 p.m., which is earlier than planned.

“The fireworks went off, the event ended, and then everyone kind of went home, and all that remained were a lot of juveniles that were hanging out in the area,” Todd said.

Todd says what started with girls fighting rolled into other fights among other groups of teenagers.

"Personal conflicts, I think, as more than anything else,” Todd said.

Officers and sheriff’s deputies helped break up the fights and move the teens out of Public Square.

Violence interrupters from city hall also stepped in.

“These kids see these same people in their schools in their neighborhoods, and they have a different relationship than law enforcement does,” Todd said.

Last year, gunfire wounded two teen boys after the tree lighting. Another teen was just sentenced for shooting into a crowd.

Palumbo talked with me then about how kids would get off buses in Public Square after school and linger, sometimes fighting.

Video from November 2023 shows chaos after shooting.

He says the violence interrupters made a marked improvement.

“They have done a terrific job of being in the schools all the way to being in the square after school and really heading off those problems before they start,” Palumbo said.

Still, Todd says they’ve asked before and ask again that parents bring their kids to events like this.

“I think parent involvement and having that be the best way to remedy this because we had several hundred juveniles, but there was no parent there,” Todd said.

Palumbo hopes parents and teens will have an honest discussion about what it means to be a part of downtown.

“This is their downtown too. It would be great if they were a little more respectful of that downtown,” Palumbo said.

Police say two teens were detained and released to their parents from the fights on Saturday.

There was talk on social media about a video of a girl being assaulted. Todd says she believes it didn’t happen in Cleveland or even Ohio. But they’re trying to get the right law enforcement agency involved to investigate the matter.

Bedrock released the following statement regarding the tree lighting: