A TikTok video showing two young teens hurling racist and homophobic slurs at shoppers near Raleigh's North Hills has racked up more than 40,000 views, reigniting concerns about unsupervised teen gatherings at the upscale shopping district. The woman who posted the clip says it captured just one of three separate encounters teens had with patrons there within the same stretch of time.
Trinity Teixeira told The News & Observer that she and some out-of-town friends had stopped at the North Hills Target to charge their Tesla when the confrontation happened. According to Teixeira, teens harassed three different groups on the property within that same time frame, and the incident shown in her video appeared to happen before 8 p.m., based on footage she posted of the interaction.
North Hills officials posted a statement to an Instagram story Wednesday evening denouncing the incident. The mall's management said it was disappointed by the behavior and voiced concern about reckless e-bike practices on the property as well.
Operator Says It Takes Violations Seriously
North Hills is privately owned and operated by Kane Realty Corp., and the property's rules make clear that guests who do not act responsibly may be asked to leave at any time, according to the Visit North Hills policies page. The same policy lists e-bikes, scooters, skateboards and hoverboards among the activities prohibited on the grounds, and it bars disruptive behavior including shouting, vulgar language and profanity.
Stacey Buescher, executive vice president of operations for Kane Realty Corp., said violations including harassment, disruptive behavior and unsafe e-bike activity are taken seriously and addressed as appropriate. She said North Hills has public safety officers on the property around the clock, but declined to comment on whether officials were taking any specific action in response to this incident. Per the property's own code of conduct, North Hills reserves the right to file criminal trespassing charges against people who violate its rules.
Buescher added that issues involving minors extend beyond any one property, and that safe and respectful behavior requires a shared effort among parents, guardians, schools, city officials and the broader community. North Hills management said it welcomed continued partnership to address those challenges and reinforce expectations for young people on the property.
A Curfew Already in Place for Minors
North Hills already has its own age-based rule in place. Under what the property calls its Parents On Site Policy, children under 18 in North Hills' public areas after 8 p.m. must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian over the age of 21, according to the posted policies. Minors found on the property after that hour without meeting that requirement are escorted by Public Safety to a designated space while a guardian is contacted for pickup.
This is not the first time a crowd of teens has drawn a police response at North Hills. Raleigh police detained seven juveniles near the North Hills movie theater in April after a disruptive crowd gathered following a concert documentary, according to WRAL. All seven were later released to their parents, police said.
Raleigh Weighs a Citywide Curfew Amid Rising Juvenile Crime
The North Hills incident lands amid a broader citywide reckoning over so-called teen takeovers — gatherings organized primarily through social media to draw teenagers to a public place, sometimes with the help of AI-generated posters designed to help the events go viral, as described by The News & Observer. Past takeovers have grown far larger than the North Hills crowd: at least 3,000 teens took part in one gathering in Brier Creek where a large fight erupted and two bystanders were injured, and a gathering that reassembled in Glenwood South drew about 5,000 teenagers and resulted in multiple shootings and injuries, the paper reported.
Raleigh police data cited by ABC11 show 894 crimes so far in 2026 in which juveniles were suspects or arrestees, up from 821 over the same period in 2025. The station also reported 190 incidents this year of firearm rounds fired into a vehicle or dwelling, compared with just 15 in all of 2025. In Charlotte, a June teen takeover led to the arrests of 23 teenagers and one adult, and 13 parents were later cited under that city's youth curfew, per the same News & Observer report.
In response, Raleigh police have proposed a citywide curfew for people younger than 18 that would run from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., with a city council vote expected after additional public hearings, according to the station's report. The proposed hours would closely mirror curfews already in place in Charlotte, Fayetteville, Rocky Mount and Winston-Salem, the outlet noted.
