BLYTHEWOOD – Saturday night’s Movies in the Park event in Blythewood’s Doko Park started like prior Movies in the Park events – with parents sitting on blankets with their children, laughing and talking, playing games, playing with their dogs, and munching on snacks as they wait for the movie to start at sundown.
In the past, the Movies in the Park have ended happily. But Saturday’s event did not.
About 30 minutes into the movie, teen fighting – that began about 8:15 p.m., before the movie started – broke out in earnest about 9 p.m. Multiple Richland County patrol cars arrived with sirens wailing and blue lights flashing, shattering the peace that had been a fun, family movie night. Parents, who had been watching ‘The Incredibles’ with their children, were suddenly fearful for their family’s safety, grabbing their kids and belongings, rushing to their cars, and leaving the park.
One woman posted on Facebook that her family won’t be back.
Mayor Sloan Griffin posted about his own experience, which was different.
“I talked to more than 50 of those teenagers, and even walked into the center of their crowd informing them to leave and was met with ‘Yes, Sir,’ and seeing them walk away.”
The next day, Griffin posted a press release addressing the incident in the park.
“To ensure the continued safety of Doko Meadows Park, the Mayor’s Office will issue an After-Action Report to the public and members of the town council ahead of the first budget workshop. This report will include recommendations to fully fund and secure Doko Meadows Park, as well as new protocols for all future events held in the park,” Griffin posted.
More than 150 other Facebook followers responded to his comments.
“We don’t need more police, we need people to be better parents,” Christina Godwin commented.
“I would have hoped that our town’s government learned their lesson from our July 4th celebration at Doko,” Gerri Lynn Hargrove commented, recalling a similar ending to last summer’s July 4th event when hundreds of teens disrupted the festivities and terrified attendees.
A Blythewood mom of three children, including a middle school eighth grader, asked that her name not be used during an interview with The Voice.
“I first learned that teens would be at the park when my son said he wanted to go with us since a lot of kids from his middle school were going,” the mom said. “These kids use Instagram to let other kids know where the next ‘party’ will be. I saw one that said, referring to Doko Park, ‘This is the spot tonight,’” she said.
“There was a tremendous amount of middle and high school kids, with some from Fairfield Central, Dutch Fork, AC Flora, and all over. There were at least 200 teens there,” the mom said.
When The Voice requested an incident report from Richland County Sheriff’s Department about Saturday night’s melee at the movies, a public information officer replied via email, but did not include an incident report.
“By the time RCSD had arrived, there was no fight in progress,” the reply stated. “Currently, we have no report because we have no victim. Captain Walmsley met with the mayor today about this incident and will be provided with the footage from the working cameras around the area. He also discussed safety measures the town can put in place for future events.”
On Tuesday, The Voice reached out to Captain Gavin Walmsley who oversees the Richland County Sheriff’s Department’s Station Six Headquarters in Blythewood, but had not received a response at press time on Wednesday.
Griffin told The Voice on Monday that he would be looking at the Town’s park videos and would turn over any video with evidence of wrongdoing to Captain Walmsley.
Until Saturday, Movies in the Park had been a warm-weather fun event for area families – most attending with small children.
Erica Page, vice president of Guarantee Rate Affinity, started Movies in the Park three years ago as a promotion for her company. No security has been needed, and Page and town hall split the costs of the movie events equally with Page in charge of arranging for everything – the movies, helium balloons, hundreds of goody bags, music and more. Many young families brought tents to sit in and blow-up king size mattresses complete with pillows and blankets to cuddle under while watching the movie together in comfort. Attendance steadily increased into the hundreds.
After Page was elected to town council last January to fill Councilman Sloan Griffin’s seat after he was elected mayor in November, 2023, the town took over the Movies in the Park event, making all the arrangements and footing all the bills.
Page, still fond of the event she created, continues to volunteer and says she enjoys having a presence at the events.
But with the peace at park events now being breached – first at the July 4th firework celebration, and now Movies in the Park – Page said those events are being re-looked at by the Town’s leadership.
“I really appreciate our town staff who was there and helped navigate the chaos and cleaned up our park after the crowd left,” Page said. “And thankful for the Richland County Sheriff’s Department for coming out to ensure everyone’s safety. To all the families and kids – thank you for coming out and while our fun time was short – I am very thankful for our families and community supporting our town and staying through the movie until it had to be shut down for the safety of our citizens. “It’s unfortunate what happened,” Town Councilwoman Andrea Fripp said. “We want our community and park to be a safe place for the residents, but without having to turn it into Fort Knox. I hope the mayor and council can work together to come up with viable solutions that continue to allow Blythewood to be a family destination.”
