Video Shows Mass Brawl at California Target Store in Front of Shoppers

A video shared by local media shows the moment a violent mass brawl broke out inside a Target store in southern California on Monday night, as four men were seen attacking someone in front of onlookers.

The clip, taken at a Target store in Redlands, San Bernardino, and later shared on social media, shows the men suddenly assaulting another man, kicking and punching him repeatedly.

A Target employee can be seen urging other shoppers to distance themselves from the brawl. At a certain point, the victim—who was standing while being punched and kicked and was trying to swing back at his attackers—can be seen falling to the ground. The attackers continue to punch him and stomp on him.

The identities of the attackers and the victim are still unknown. According to local reports, police were called to the scene and found the victim still at the store, but the man wasn't interested in speaking with the officers and didn't press charges.

Police are still investigating the cause of the fight.

Newsweek contacted the Redlands Police Department for comment by email on Friday.

The footage was shared on Instagram by Inland Wire, a Southern California news page. It said the incident happened at about 8:30 p.m. on Monday inside the Target store at the Mountain Grove Shopping Center in Redlands.

"It's not the first time we've talked about the problems at the shopping center either. In fact, Redlands Police are reporting five incidents at the mall last week alone," Inland Wire wrote.

The previous incidents took place on August 3, 5, 7, and 9 and involved a mass fight outside the Ross store, a man pointing a rifle around the food court (which turned out to be an airsoft gun), a case of shoplifting for $8,000 and another one for $1,800.

Witnesses to Monday's brawl said the victim was a Latino man. "They start swinging towards the Latino guy," Laura Sanchez, who was inside the store and saw the incident, told KTLA5. "It was like four against one."

According to Sanchez, one of those involved in the fight was saying he was 13 years old. "I just heard one of the teenage boys saying: 'I'm 13, I'm 13! You can't put your hands on me,'" she said.

The woman said she had headed to the store on West Lugonia Avenue at around 8:15 p.m. and was going to the bathroom when the fight broke out as families were busy shopping.

"We just heard noises in the background and out of nowhere, they just come up and started fighting," said Sanchez. "We're like, 'What happened?'"

The violent fight in the San Bernardino store is only the latest in a series of accidents that have afflicted Target in recent years. Last week, a man who tried to steal not one, but two $500 TVs from a Target store in Atlanta, Georgia, was arrested after an altercation with police.

Officers believe that the shoplifter, 34-year-old Seth Berman, was under the influence of drugs at the time of the crime.