At Movie Monday in Perry Square, families gathered to enjoy the film, but the atmosphere shifted when about 150 teens arrived who, according to Erie Police Chief Dan Spizarny, were not interested in watching the movie.

Witnesses reported that the teens began circling the park and horsing around, which escalated into several fights.

The two off-duty officers hired for security were unable to manage the large crowd and called for backup.

Erie Police are now reviewing the incident and will consider additional measures to ensure safety at future community events.

Statement from EDDC: 

“The EDDC is aware of last night’s incident in the park. We remain focused on our mission, will continue to push for progress in the downtown, and will not allow the disruptive actions of a few individuals to impede the continued facilitation of joyful gatherings downtown. We thank the Erie Downtown Partnership and the Erie Police Department for their continued hard work, diligence, and collaboration.”

Drew Whiting, CEO, EDDC

Statement from EDP:

Last night, a fight broke out among a group of teens who were gathered at our Movie Monday event in Perry Square. These actions are in direct conflict with our mission of creating a safe, fun, and welcoming downtown for all. 

We offer our sincere apologies to those who attended the movie for both the disruption and the concerns this incident caused.

Violence of any kind will not be tolerated at any of our events, and we will continue to work with the police to proactively prevent situations like this from interrupting our events. Our team will be meeting with the police to revise our safety plan for Movie Mondays tomorrow. We want to thank the on-duty City police officers we hired who were assigned to the event last night for their patience and understanding when dealing with the children. We ended the movie about ten minutes early at the request of the police on site so that they could properly disperse the crowd. The careful response to the situation from the officers on site prevented further escalation, and we thank them for their commitment to keeping our events safe.

We remain committed to hosting safe, quality, family-friendly events. We host over 100 events throughout the year in Perry Square and other public spaces downtown, and the movies represent six of those events per year that have occurred without incident since we brought the series to Perry Square in 2022.

We recognize that this incident prompts several other concerns: What need is being overlooked among the youth of our community that may result in these actions?  What are we lacking in Erie in terms of a safe third space for these teens to gather without incident? How can we collaborate with our community partners to meet that need? These are complex issues, but Erie Downtown Partnership is committed to contributing to a solution that works to address these needs and creates a better downtown experience for all. We are committed to making our events safe spaces and ask that everyone do their part to be good neighbors and respect each other at our events.