The recent shootings in Coolidge Park have been attributed to a flash mob incident. This was the account Mayor Ron Littlefield, along with Chief of Police Freeman Cooper, City IT Director Mark Keil and Parks and Recreation Director Larry Zehnder gave at a press conference held Monday afternoon in the park.

Wikepedia defines a flash mob as
"a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then quickly disperse. The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails. The term is generally not applied to events organized by public relations firms, protests, and publicity stunts."

Mayor Littlefield stated of the incident in which five people were shot, “This is a problem going on all across the country. It actually started out as fun, but has recently turned dangerous, as in Philadelphia. I was just on the phone with Mayor Michael Nutter of that city, where they have had six flash mob incidents including a woman who was knocked down and kicked.”

“I asked what he would say to these folks, ‘Yeah, cut it out.’”

“Fortunately,” the mayor said, “Chattanooga has had no fatalities.”

He continued, “This past Saturday night’s shooting was an unfortunate event.

“It was handled properly and by the book. It started out as a crowd gathering following a day of texting and emailing among a group of young people. When park police noticed some of the group beginning to act unruly they acted within procedures and called for Chattanooga Police.”

The mayor went on, “By the time the gunshots were fired police had been on the scene for one and a half hours, dispersing the crowd. It should be noted that the alleged perpetrators were arrested and in custody within minutes of the shots being fired.”

According to Mayor Littlefield there was a party going on at one of the businesses and “the band never missed a beat.”

Chief Cooper mentioned that there had been only two previous incidents of this nature over the past two years. “This was a very unfortunate event,” he said. Responding to a question regarding any gang involvement, the chief said, “No. While we have seen other incidents that were gang related, only one gang member was identified to have participated in this incident.

“Fortunately no one was killed this time, but this is a problem that we as a community are going to have to deal with. We have to get these guns off the street.”

The mayor concluded with, “We want families to feel safe in using our parks. If they continue with an eye towards safety they can do so. We will be increasing police patrols, as well as bike patrols just as we do every year at this time.”

(You can email Dennis Norwood at sportswriter56@comcast.net)