Teens cause mayhem Thursday at Ontario Beach Park

What was supposed to be a night of fun for music lovers at Ontario Beach Park Thursday night quickly turned into an hour of mayhem. Rochester Police responded and had to help break up an unruly crowd.

News10NBC talked to one business owner who was forced to close his doors when teens started fighting outside his restaurant.

As police were clearing people out of the park, small fights were breaking out in the parking lot and across the street.

“We fight down here for business, and stupid stuff like last night doesn’t help,” said Lee Selover.

He, and his family own Windjammers Restaurant on Lake Avenue, right across the street from Ontario Beach Park and Charlotte Beach. Video was sent to us by an employee at the restaurant showing the chaos happening just feet from the front entrance.

Selover said, “I saw the crowd massing down here at the corner and I said this isn’t good, and it started creeping up this way and I told all my patrons here to get inside. We’re locking the door. We’re not letting anything in.”

Police say the teens lit fireworks in the park. Video posted on the Rochester Area Crime Alerts Facebook page clearly shows the police working to clear the area. No injuries or arrests were reported.

Rochester Police Lieutenant Greg Bello said, “Our goal was to get everybody safely out of there, and often times when you start getting into arrest scenarios you start getting into prolonging the situation, and our goal was to put an end to the situation and get people out of there, and we were able to successfully do that.”

For Selover, nights like this puts a strain on his business.

“This is a beautiful area. It’s meant to enjoy. I mean we have a lot of good restaurants. We have this, we have that and to have this spoil the area. It’s really irritating,” said Selover. He continued, “It’s too bad they didn’t have something constructive to do like maybe get a summer job.”

Rochester Police and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department will work alongside a private security team for this weekend’s Harborfest at the beach.