OGDEN, Utah, Dec. 3, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — Pepper spray got loose somehow in the Newgate Mall in Ogden Friday evening, drawing police and emergency medical personnel.
The incident was dispatched at 6:44 p.m. with two ambulances called to the scene, according to Weber County’s emergency dispatch center.
Details are still sketchy Ogden Police Lt. John Cox said at 8 p.m., confirming pepper spray as the culprit.
“We’ve pretty much got it under control at this point,” he said. “If we needed to warn people away we’d be blocking off traffic if that was the case.”
Cox couldn’t confirm initial reports of up to a dozen people having trouble breathing, noting some of his officers were still at the Newgate.
Later Friday night, Lt. Cox assured the pepper spray incident was a random event, not any kind of conspiracy, but an altercation between two groups in a confrontation who knew each other, when a member of one group pepper-sprayed the other group. “There was no threat to the general public,” he said.
A number of bystanders were treated at the scene, he said, and one or more individuals were sent to a hospital. “That was handled by the Ogden fire department,” he said, “so I don’t have exact numbers.” The incident remains under investigation.
The fire department also ventilated the mall, he said, which is now safe for holiday shopping to resume.
