Turns out 2024 didn’t start with an extraterrestrial start.
Miami police shut down wild rumors that a 10-foot-tall alien was roaming the Floridian city on New Year’s Day after conspiracy theories ran rampant on social media.
“There are no aliens, UFOs, or ETs,” the department confirmed Friday.
The speculation was sparked after a video circulating online appeared to show a large figure walking outside Bayside Marketplace, a downtown Miami shopping mall, surrounded by dozens of police cruisers with their lights flashing.
But the truth behind the raw, zoomed-in footage taken from some of the stories above is a little more otherworldly, according to police.
The Miami Police Department shot down rumors that there were aliens roaming the Floridian city on New Year’s Day. YouTube/NBC 6 South Florida
“It is the shadow of a person walking. If you look at the beginning of the clip, you can see the person at the bottom of the shadow,” Officer Michael Vega said in a statement.
“If there was a creature, me and the other officers would pull out our pistols, rifles and shotguns while we hid in the back of our car.”
The real reason for the massive police presence was in response to reports that a group of more than 50 teenagers, possibly armed with sticks, were fighting in the mall.
Businesses had to be temporarily closed until police could remove the troublemakers. YouTube/NBC 6 South Florida
The rioters also set off fireworks, causing many people inside the mall to run for fear of gunfire.
Even after the police arrived, the group refused to leave. Some of the many responding officers worked to control the children, while others worked to control the stressed crowd.
The commotion caused businesses to temporarily close until police could remove the troublemakers.
The teenagers had set off fireworks, causing many people inside the mall to run for fear of gunfire. YouTube/NBC 6 South Florida
“The juvenile caused chaos,” Vega said.
Four teenagers were arrested for causing the ordeal, according to NBC Miami.
However, that simple answer does little to quell the rumors circulating on social media.
Police were seen combing the area where the rioters ran in downtown Miami. YouTube/NBC 6 South Florida
“A 10ft Alien/Creature (caught on camera?) fired shots into and out of Miami Mall, media was silent, police covered it up saying kids were fighting with fireworks, yet all these police cars, & air traffic stopped that night except black army helicopters…and no media coverage,” wrote one user on X.
“I’m not sure which part of this story bothers me the most: the fact that we actually live in a world where something like this can happen … or something like this can happen in our world or that none of the new media has broken the story, it’s not the same once,” said a woman on TikTok.
Others claimed they lost power or WiFi within hours of the ordeal, while some claimed a nearby airport was closed – all confirmed by Miami Police to be false claims.
Five days later, #MiamiAlien is still trending on X.
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
