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Was Louisville Black Friday mall brawl staged?

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Police are investigating whether a violent brawl recorded at a Louisville, Ky., shopping mall before Black Friday was staged, officials tell 48 Hours' Crimesider.

A video of two men repeatedly punching and kicking each other late Thursday night at Mall St. Matthews has gone viral on social media and made national headlines. The men are seen wrestling each other to the ground in the mall's packed food court as patrons dash out of the way.

Officer Dennis McDonald, a patrolman with St. Matthews police, tells Crimesider that officers in the area responded within a minute to the fracas just before 11 p.m., but the fight had already been broken up by mall security and the two men seen in the video had left the scene.

He said the men on the video haven't been identified and that neither has come forward to file a police report. Police can't say for sure what started the brawl, but McDonald says it's possible the men were "putting on a show," as a publicity stunt that led to a dangerous situation in a crowded public space.

Police have reviewed several videos of the assault, McDonald said, and in a longer version it appears that one of the men steps forward and throws his hands up as if to signal to someone else to start fighting.

"If one of those participants had been a victim of assault, we would hope they come forward and report it to police," McDonald said. "However, if this is a staged incident we would be interested in identifying all parties involved and we would probably pursue charges at a minimum for inciting a riot."

In the video, a bystander is heard yelling "World Star," a reference to a hip hop news website that sometimes features public brawls caught on camera.

McDonald is asking anyone who can identify the men in the video to come forward. He said it's possible a third man may have been involved.

"There were literally thousands of people in that mall and all of them were going about their business, shopping, cheerful, smiles on their faces, enjoying themselves - we had no other incidents at the mall other than that one unfortunate incident," he said. "It's kind of like a black mark on Black Friday."

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