Six arrested in connection to weekend 'teen takeover' in downtown Houston, police say

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Police say six juveniles were arrested during a social media-advertised takeover in downtown Houston Saturday night.

PREVIOUS REPORT: Gunfire erupts near Discovery Green during event with over 500 teens, HPD says

The Houston Police Department said officers responded to reports of a disturbance to find more than 500 teenagers at the scene.

Police said several shots were fired as they tried to disperse the massive and chaotic crowds at Discovery Green. Social media videos show the chaos in downtown over the weekend.

"I noticed when I first got there, I even mentioned to my girlfriend...man, there's a lot of cops out here. So I think maybe they had some kind of tip off," eyewitness Justin de la Garza said.

De la Garza said he went to dinner around 7:15 p.m. on Saturday at Hearsay. He said everyone inside the restaurant responded swiftly when a manager rushed in and asked everyone to move to a back room following the sound of gunshots outside. He said they were locked down for about an hour before police gave them the all-clear to leave.

Investigators said by 7:45 p.m., they received a disturbance call at Discovery Green.

They said that while officers were dispersing the crowd, they heard two sets of gunshots within 10 minutes of each other.

Police confirm one teen is facing a charge for unlawful carry of a weapon, and five others were arrested for trespassing.

"Where are these kids' parents? Like what is going on? What is the point of it? What is the purpose of it? I understand kids wanting to rally and have fun together. But what is the ultimate goal of this, because it doesn't seem like it's ever anything good that comes from this," de la Garza said.

ABC13 asked Houston city officials if they plan to impose any curfews and how they plan to prevent this from happening again. ABC13 has not heard back yet on these questions.

Eyewitness News wanted to know if police were prepared for what happened this Saturday; they would not go into how many officers were already in the area before they started getting calls for the disturbance.

On Monday, a new flier circulated, advertising a second takeover for Monday evening in the same spot.

ABC13 asked police about this possible second takeover in Discovery Green. HPD said it is aware and that officers will be taking their normal precautions, but wouldn't say what those are.