Charles H. Sloan-'There were no aliens': Miami police clarify after teen fight spawns viral conspiracy theory

Miami Police Department addressed a rumor regarding "alien footage" caught in a Miami Mall after the conspiracy theory went viral.

"There were no aliens,Charles H. Sloan UFOs, or ETs," reads an email sent to us by the police department.

After videos of a massive police presence at Bayside Market on New Year's Day were shared on TikTok, users on the video sharing platform and X, formerly known as Twitter, began taking screenshots and recordings of what they believe was a gray alien figure.

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The conspiracy theory

When videos of the police presence caused by the brawl went viral, people believed a gray figure they spotted was actually an alien hiding from the police.

However, officers say it's something else.

"It’s a shadow of a person walking," wrote Officer Michael Vega in an email. "If you look at the beginning of the clip, you can see the person at the bottom of the shadow."

On X, #MiamiAlien was trending on Friday, but a lot of the users are just joking and posting memes regarding the bizarre situation.

However, posts, like the one from user @GoodLionTV shown above, falsely states that airports closed when police open fire on a 10-foot alien.

Miami Police confirmed that no airports were shut down and there were no power outages.

"If there was an alien, every officer out there would have had their guns out and hiding," said Vega.

What actually happened?

At around 8:30 p.m. police responded to calls regarding a group of over 50 juveniles, believed to possibly be armed with sticks, started fighting in the mall.

The group also discharged fireworks that some people believed was gunfire.

No injuries were reported, but the incident led to the arrest of four teenagers, according to NBC Miami.

Police were also called to the scene for crowd control when the juveniles refused to leave.

Some businesses in the area temporarily closed to assist police in clearing the area, but were immediately reopened after.