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Cops arrest 2 in Green Acres Mall fracas

Man in video called 911, police say

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The two women who were seen fighting outside the Green Acres Mall in a video that went viral last week were arrested on April 29 following an investigation, Nassau County police said.

Tawana Morel, 35, of Rosedale, Queens, and Latoya Friday, 24, of Arverne, Queens, were each charged with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, in connection with the April 26 incident. Police said the video, which shows Morel knocking Friday to the ground and punching her repeatedly in the forehead, was only one part of an altercation that began when Friday assaulted Morel.

Friday was upset that Morel’s husband had been holding a parking space she wanted near the mall’s northwest side in front of Applebee’s, and a verbal argument ensued that led to Friday striking Morel twice on the side of the head, police said. That’s when Morel fought back.

“She went a little overboard, and that’s why she was arrested as well,” said Kevin Smith, chief of detectives.

Smith said that Morel’s husband, who appears in the video holding a small child and holding back another woman, was preventing Friday’s friend from participating in the fight.

James Bartscherer, commander of the Fifth Precinct, said that the husband was not charged because he was the person who called 911. Bartscherer said that an officer who was in the police substation, which can be seen in the video’s background, was at the scene 30 seconds after the call was made, but the fight was over.

Smith said the incident was investigated after the video appeared, and that one of the participants came forward the following day. Mall surveillance video was also looked at, and showed the first stage of the altercation.

Both women suffered minor facial contusions and reported minor pain, police said.

They were released on appearance tickets and are due in First District Court in Hempstead on May 7.