Exclusive video obtained by NBC10 shows chaotic video in Ocean City, New Jersey. Police said four separate fights broke out on the boardwalk Memorial Day weekend, including one incident in which a victim was stabbed. NBC10’s Ted Greenberg has the latest on the investigation.
NBC10 has an exclusive look at the police video that captured some of the mayhem involving teenagers during the Memorial Day weekend at the Jersey Shore.
The images from Ocean City provide vantage points that you may not have seen yet along with the challenges the cops faced as they worked to stop the fights that drew large groups of young people.
Memorial Day weekend chaos
"Stop. Get out of here. Back up, back up," Ocean City police officers can be heard while trying to stop a brawl on the boardwalk.
They can also be heard saying, "I need help," as they worked to control growing groups of rowdy onlookers.
Videos from police body-worn cameras provide the view the cops had of some of the chaos involving unruly teens and young adults over the Memorial Day weekend.
Get Tri-state area news delivered to your inbox. Sign up for NBC New York's News Headlines newsletter.
At the scene of this mayhem, authorities say about seven to 10 officers were far outnumbered by several hundred people.
"You're under arrest. Get up," the officer can be heard on the video. “You just kicked an officer. That’s illegal.”
About four separate fights broke out on the boardwalk over the holiday weekend. One fight led to the stabbing of a 15-year-old boy.
“Seemed to be all Atlantic County kids," Ocean City Police Department chief Clint Helphenstine said. “Everybody knew each other. They probably had previous altercations. They were just fighting on our Boardwalk.”
Wildwood and Seaside Heights also had to contend with some rowdy behavior.
Surveillance video from Ocean City shows young people running away from a fight and then a stampede down the boardwalk toward the brawl. Families were caught in the middle of it all.
"You have normal families taking cover in stores just to get out of the way of hundreds of kids running down the boardwalk to see what's going on," Chief Helphenstine said.
Police say they arrested more than 20 people for varying types of bad behavior over Memorial Day weekend.
Officials are still investigating the stabbing but so far no one has been charged.
“All these fights were stopped and order was restored in a fairly short amount of time," Helphenstine explained.
Two dozen seasonal officers and three full-time cops are set to graduate from the police academy and join the OCPD later this week. Most of them will be assigned to the boardwalk, so authorities say you’ll see an even larger police presence on the boards starting this weekend.
