Dirt bike riders race through food court of busy Southern California mall

Some mallgoers in a Santa Clarita Valley neighborhood were surprised by a trio of motorcyclists riding through the food court Saturday night.  

The chaotic scene unfolded at the Town Center Mall in Valencia where three suspects on two dirt bikes, likely juveniles, were captured on cellphone video obtained by KTLA cruising through the food court area at a relatively high speed.  

A restaurant manager at the mall, Chris Hernandez, said the fast-driving suspects evaded mall security, which was slow to respond.  

“It was loud. I saw the motorcycles come up through the mall,” the restaurant manager told KTLA’s Sandra Mitchell. “To me, it’s a big no, no because there’s little kids all over the place and somebody’s going to end up getting hurt.”  

Other mall employees who spoke to KTLA say this is not even the first time that dirt bikes riders have made their way inside the mall.  

“They’re very bold,” Matthew Montano, who works at a restaurant in the mall, said. “It’s usually happened in the last year, though, a little frequently.”  

So far, authorities with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have not made any arrests, though Sgt. Guillermo Martinez said the three suspects could face felony charges if caught.  

“People are there for the shopping experience. They’re not going to expect having a motorcycle ride right past them,” he told KTLA. “That could be threat of serious danger, injury to them as well as to the riders of the motorcycles.”  

Just an hour after the mall incident, a teenager on a motorcycle who was reportedly driving in the wrong way in traffic at the intersection of Railroad Avenue and Oak Ridge Drive was killed.  

Several posts on social media report that it was one of the drivers in the mall motorcycle incident, though law enforcement officials have yet to confirm that.  

What officials with the sheriff’s department did say, however, is that they will be increasing patrols in the area.  

“We will be out there, and we will take a zero-tolerance approach,” Sgt. Martinez told KTLA. “If we see it, we will either cite, confiscate, arrest or impound depending on what the circumstances are, but we are ramping up enforcement.”  

Authorities added that they are seeing more of this type of dangerous activity, especially since e-bikes, many of which resemble dirt bikes, have become more common and that deputies on motorcycles and ATV’s will be enlisted to chase the suspects down.