Man injured in youth melee

Tuesday, June 7, 2005 | 9:50 a.m.

More than 50 youths were involved in a fight in the parking lot of a McDonald's at Lake Mead and Hollywood boulevards on Monday, and while none were wounded during the fight, a man in his 40s reportedly suffered some minor cuts and was taken to North Vista Hospital in North Las Vegas.

At least nine Metro Police patrol cars responded to the fight around 3 p.m., but officers did not have any suspects in custody because the youths ran when they spotted police cars, Metro spokesman Eric Roberson said.

Roberson said initial calls reported that there were between 50 and 100 youths fighting and that one individual brandished a gun, but that could not be confirmed.

One witness, Mike Oberg, 21, said he saw about 65 youths fighting in the parking lot of the McDonald's between 2:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. Oberg was across the street at a gas station when the fight broke out and said he only caught the last few minutes.

He said that the youths fighting were split along racial lines, with one side white and the other black. Police said they could not confirm that.

One employee of a Terrible Herbst, which shares a parking lot with the McDonald's, said she saw about 40 youths hanging out in the gas station at around 2 p.m. when she first arrived on her shift.

She declined to provide her name.

She said the youths looked like junior high-aged children but she could not positively guess their age.