GUILDERLAND — Two cousins were taken to the hospital after a knife fight in Crossgates Mall on Christmas, according to Guilderland Police.

Police responded to a report of a stabbing outside of the Café Court entrance at the mall around 10 p.m. on Dec. 25.

Officers arrived to find a 20-year old male from Albany who had a stab wound to his leg and a laceration to his hand, and a 16-year-old male from Syracuse who had a laceration to his back, according to the police report.

The two are cousins, police say, and were transported to Albany Medical Center Hospital where they were treated for non-life threatening wounds.
No arrests have been made yet and the investigation is ongoing, said Sergeant Gary W. Lee of the Guilderland Police; police have not released the names of the cousins. He added that those involved with investigation have been "very cooperative."

When police arrived, the 20-year-old male was bleeding heavily from the puncture wound to his leg, Lee said.

The attacks were not gang-related, said Lee, but the result of a verbal fight between two women before the men’s assaults occurred.
"A half hour before the incident, two women were yelling at each other and they then called some family members to the mall," Lee told The Enterprise yesterday.

The police are looking to press second-degree assault charges but are unsure of the number of people who were actually involved in the fight, said Lee.

When people began to arrive at the mall, following calls from the two women, Lee said, that’s when things got out of control.
"It wasn’t a gang-related incident in the sense of Bloods and Cripts. It was gang-related by definition of involving more than just two people fighting," Lee said. "After they called some people in to the mall, the situation simply exploded."

People on both sides of the fight confronted each other and began to physically fight by the vestibule next to the Café Court doors, police said.

No weapons were found at the scene and the investigation is continuing, according to police.