At least one officer used pepper spray to subdue people who were fighting, and one juvenile was arrested, accused of pushing a police officer, Captain Haba said.

About 560 miles away, a similar situation was unfolding at the Shoppes at Buckland Hills in Manchester, Conn. Hundreds of teenagers were mobbing the mall, forcing it to close early.

“Even the officers that were up there sensed that something was different” before a fight broke out, Capt. Christopher Davis, a spokesman for the Manchester police, said in a phone interview. “They just sensed that something was in the air, per se, that something didn’t seem right.”

Captain Davis said that so many teenagers had arrived to the Shoppes at Buckland Hills that additional city buses had to be called in to take all of them home. Five juveniles and two adults were arrested on charges of fighting or interfering with police officers, he said.

The day after Christmas is one of the busiest shopping days of the year, with people returning unwanted presents, using new gift cards and searching for after-holiday sales.

Some police officers said the chaos had the characteristics of so-called flash mobs, gatherings loosely organized on social media. The police also speculated that unseasonably warm weather in some places may have played a role, too. It was around 65 degrees in Indianapolis, where fights broke out at Castleton Square mall.

It is not uncommon for mayhem to occur on Dec. 26. On that day in 2013, more than 300 teenagers gathered in Brooklyn at Kings Plaza mall, where they fought, yelled and slammed shop doors.