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After a New Year鈥檚 incident at a Miami mall sparked a massive police response, social media users started spreading some out-of-this-world claims.
Videos circulating social media show dozens of police cars and shadowy figures at Bayside Marketplace, located about 5 miles from South Beach. Many people claimed these figures were not human, but extraterrestrial.
A Jan. 5 shared a screenshot of an that said, "I was at the Miami mall yesterday and the government is lying. There were no kids fighting. Everyone started panicking because these gray creatures were walking around."
The same Instagram account shared , also Jan. 5, that said there were "rumors and witness reports that there were 7- to 10-feet tall creatures and beings running around the shopping area and attacking people."
Another Instagram user that the police presence was in response to kids opening "a portal for alien creatures to walk through."
These Instagram posts were flagged as part of Meta鈥檚 efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our , which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
But Miami police didn鈥檛 swarm the mall because E.T. went on a shopping spree.
Miami police officers responded to reports of a shooting Jan. 1 at Bayside Marketplace, the department told . What sounded like gunshots was actually a group of at least 50 teenagers shooting fireworks at people and looting stores.
Police temporarily shut down roads near the mall and to avoid the area because of "a large crowd of unruly juveniles." About an hour later, at 11:30 p.m., police the roads were reopened.
Officers had trouble controlling the chaos at first and called all active police officers to the scene. That鈥檚 why there was a large police presence at the mall, Miami police officer Rafael Horta said in a shared Jan. 5 on the department鈥檚 Instagram account.
Horta also addressed the alien claims: "There is now a video going viral of 8- to 10- foot aliens walking around Bayside. It鈥檚 actually just a person walking with a shadow. So I can confirm to you all here today right now that there are no aliens in Miami, in Bayside Marketplace at the moment."
We rate the claim that police responded to alien creatures at a Miami mall on Jan. 1 Pants on Fire!
Our Sources
- (), Jan. 5, 2024
- , Jan. 5, 2024
- , Jan. 6, 2024
- , Jan. 5, 2024
- Miami Police Department, , Jan. 1, 2024
- Miami Police Department, , Jan. 1, 2024
- Miami Police Department, , Jan. 5, 2024
- Miami Herald, "," Jan. 6, 2024
- NBC Miami, "," Jan. 5, 2024
- NBC News, "," Jan. 5, 2024
- CBS Miami, "," Jan. 5, 2024
