Northgate brawl shocks shoppers

Chairs were thrown and a security guard allegedly punched during a brawl among six people at the Northgate Shopping Centre on Wednesday.

The manager of Zamel’s Jewellers said she was in the storeroom when she heard what sounded like thunder — until she saw a fight outside the shop.

“I was out in the storeroom and could hear banging glass, ” she said. “I thought it was thunder, an older guy was smashing a young kid, maybe 16, on the glass window of our store, using it as a bouncing board. Six people were fighting one-on-one, I honestly thought our glass was going to break.

“They came near our doorway and almost knocked over our sign, we had blood on the windows from spitting. I closed the store and locked everyone in. It was very frightening. Security was helpless to do anything, people were rushing their kids out of the store to safety, the brawl continued toward the food court.”

Betts manager Ashley said the brawl started near her shop.

“A few indigenous men and a few women started fighting near the store; I’m not sure what they were fighting over, ” she said.

“One of the men punched the security guard trying to break up the fight. Lots of people were watching, I think there was only a security guard on duty.”

Shopper Denzie Richard was getting lunch with her husband when a “blood curdling” scream was heard.

“We heard a blood curdling scream and people were running from Target to see what happened, ” she said.

“Next minute, a green chair was flying through the air, I saw a young kid with blood on him, one of them picked up a bin lid and threw it, shoppers were scampering away, police and ambulance arrived. In 35 years of living here, I have never seen something so bad, it was vulgar … the language being used was appalling.

“The swearing was just disgusting, the ‘C’ word and just about every other rude word was said and yelled out. This sort of thing we don’t want when there were young children out with their families.

“Some were very upset and distressed with the events and lots of people were ringing police. They got there in no time, as did an ambulance.

“The fighting carried on out the front of Northgate when police arrived. It’s sad because we would recommend our town to people — but not at the moment.”

Target Geraldton declined to comment. Northgate Shopping Centre was contacted.