BRANDON, Fla. — The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said Monday that 29 people were arrested in the wake of a Saturday night brawl in Brandon that involved 400 to 500 people.

23 of those arrested were minors, the sheriff's office said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

It happened at about 9:20 p.m. outside Astro Skate in Brandon.

The sheriff's office says an off-duty deptuy requested assistance with the crowd at around 9:20 p.m., saying there was fighting in the parking lot.

"Despite deputies issuing multiple warnings instructing the crowd to leave as they were trespassing, the crowd refused to comply and continued to cause havoc, leading to their arrest," the sheriff's office said on X.

There was also damage reported to businesses.

HCSO said the minors were taken to Hillsborough County's Juvenile Assessment Center for processing through the night and into Sunday morning.

"I am outraged by the violent and disruptive behavior that targeted hard-working people and businesses, creating chaos in our community," said Sheriff Chad Chronister.

According to Astro Skate owner Chris Maganias, the gathering started with a customer who scheduled a child's birthday for 11:30 p.m. Friday night.

Employees saw that they were actually advertising some other kind of event and opening it up to the general public, which is against Astro Skate's policy.

So, they canceled the party and refunded the customer, but she was still angry. He says she posted online, encouraging people to come to the rink at 9 p.m. Saturday and cause trouble.

"We looked online, and of course, it wasn't a birthday party for a little girl," said Maganias. "It was some kind of rap, hip-hop - I don't know what it was, but it was out to the general public. And that violates our contract."

Maganias says around 8:30 p.m. Saturday, they had more than 500 people in the rink. That was getting close to capacity, so they and the off-duty deputies working security began turning people away.

"We did what we were supposed to do. We mitigated the crowd," he said. "We knew we were going to have a problem. So, we said, 'Hey - we're good. We got enough kids in the building.'"

Maganias says he plans to request twice the usual number of off-duty deputies to work security next weekend. He says the industry has changed a lot in the past few years, with a number of businesses opting not to serve teens on the weekend. He doesn't plan to go that route.

"A lot of rinks - quite a few - are no longer opening for teenagers on Friday and Saturday nights. Now, we don't look at it like that because, you know, you're a young man, you've been skating with us since you're seven years old," he said. "It's not fair to them. It's not fair to the 500 kids who were in our building, skating, having a great old time. So, we're going to continue with what we do. We're going to make sure we keep that bad element out."