WILKES-BARRE - At least a dozen teenagers at the center of a chaotic melee Tuesday evening at Miner Park spoke out Thursday. They said they were not the instigators of violence, but rather the victims of it.

Indignant parents of the teens also spoke out, claiming their children were attacked by adults and then arrested by police simply because they are young and black.

"This can't be justified," said Wajidah Mahassen Abdul-Basir Thursday night from her Regent Street home, where nearly 20 teenagers and parents gathered to talk about what happened. "For a grown person to punch a 15-year-old girl in the eye, it's just not right."

Abdul-Basir's 15-year-old daughter, Sheri Dixon, had a badly swollen black eye that could require surgery, according to her mother. Dixon said she was hit by one of the men involved in the fracas.

On Wednesday, Lt. Paul Middleton of the Wilkes-Barre police department said John Avila and another man, Louis Coll, could be charged with disorderly conduct for their role in the fight pending the results of an investigation. "Everyone we have a name for is a suspect at this point," he said. "But some of those suspects could turn out to be victims."

The teenagers who crammed into Abdul-Basir's living room Thursday night described a wild scene at Miner Park Tuesday evening that ended with seven teens arrested on charges of criminal mischief.

They said the dispute began when two 10-year-old girls started arguing over turns on the swing set. One of the girls left and came back with her mother, older sister and a man with a knife, they said. That's when trouble started.

"The little girl's mother came up to us and started yelling and then the guy pulled out a knife," Dixon said. "I told him if you're gonna cut someone, you're gonna cut me."

As the conflict escalated, it drew in others who were playing basketball. When police arrived at about 5:30 p.m., nearly 40 people had gathered around, although fewer than half were involved in the fighting, according to the teens.

One 14-year-old girl who was arrested, Ly-inda Speer, was there with her 4-year-old brother when the fighting broke out. In the ensuing chaos she was hit in the face and lost track of her brother amid shouting and shoving, she said. "The whole time I was screaming, ‘Where's my brother? Where's my brother?'"

Abdul-Basir and another parent, Olanda Carter, said they don't understand how officers at the scene arrested their children and let Avila and several other adults go free.

"They are acting like they didn't aggravate the situation but they did. Our kids weren't armed but the police wouldn't listen to the kids and they wouldn't listen to me… "

"And then they just let him go and arrested me," he said. "They dragged me out of the police car and slammed me in the dirt. I asked to see my sister and they told me to shut up."

The teens, many of whom attend Meyers High School, said Tuesday's fight was their first encounter with the Avilas, although the Avilas say a large group of teenagers threatened them outside their home last week and have harassed them in the past.

Like the Avilas, Abdul-Basir and Carter came to Wilkes-Barre from larger cities to give their children a better life. Abdul-Basir moved here from New Jersey about eight months ago, Carter moved from Philadelphia.

"We need the police to listen to us and not assume our kids are at fault just because they're black," Carter said. "It's still safer here than it was in the city, but we need more representation."

Wilkes-Barre Area Superintendent Jeffrey Namey said when he heard about the incident he notified the principal and other staff at Meyers High School. "Our concern was that it would spill over into the school and to our knowledge it has not."

But one Meyers High School student involved in the fight, 16-year-old Marshonda Seward, said one girl "came into the school Wednesday and threatened to shoot me in my head."

Lester Jackson, whose 16-year-old son said he was involved in another fight with the Avilas Wednesday night, also moved to Wilkes-Barre to escape big-city violence.

"We came up here for peace," he said. "I'm from Philly and I've seen people get killed and that's why we came here, for a better life. This has gotta be stopped before someone gets killed."

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