A fight near the Park District of Forest Park soccer field at 7501 Harrison St. on the late afternoon of June 5 ended up drawing in two large groups and left two young people injured — but village officials said that local police worked with Oak Park and Maywood police to keep it from escalating further.

According to the police report, at 5:13 p.m., the Forest Park Police Department got a call about 10-20 teens fighting near the soccer field. By the time the officers arrived, the fight was already ended. The police caught up with two teens, a 15-year-old girl and 16-year-old boy, as they left the scene. 

The teens told the officers that they came to the park and asked a group of other teens who were playing football if they could join in. When the group said they couldn’t, the duo said they would just hang out. The girl said the group of about 12 people then pushed the boy, and she went to defend him. The boy told police he didn’t know why the group started pushing and punching him.

But one of those from the other group told officers that the boy and girl were the ones who started the fight, and he wished to press charges. 

As the officers wrote the citations for the boy and girl, they got word that a group affiliated with the two were driving to the park to confront the opposing group. The officer making the report returned to the park and saw the boy and girl “causing the disturbance” with the second group. The two teens were quickly detained, but the fight escalated, and Oak Park and Maywood police departments were called in to help with crowd control.

One of the teens from the second group, a boy, was reportedly injured because the girl allegedly threw a chair at him. The girl herself was reportedly bleeding from the mouth. 

The two teens were processed and released to their guardian’s custody at 8:05 p.m. The girl was charged with two counts of battery and one count of mob action. The boy was issued a local ordinance citation.

While village officials sometimes discuss incidents involving large crowds during village council meetings, it wasn’t mentioned during the June 13 meeting. 

Mayor Rory Hoskins told the Review while it was unfortunate that the fight happened at all, he was happy the police were there to keep the fight from escalating any further. He also said he appreciated the help from the Oak Park and Maywood police departments.