Miami police refute alien invasion hoax

"10-Foot Shadow Alien Spotted Outside A Mall In Miami, Police Storms Street," says a January 8, 2024 post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The video shows a birds-eye view of police cars swarming Bayside Marketplace, an outdoor mall in Miami, Florida.

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Screenshot of an X post taken January 10, 2024

The claim spread across platforms including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, where one post garnered more than 2.1 million views.

But the rumors are false, according to the Miami Police Department, which refuted them in a video shared January 5 on Instagram (archived here).

“There is now video going viral of '8 to 10-foot aliens' walking around Bayside,” officer Rafael Horta says in the clip. “It is actually just a person walking with a shadow.

Horta then says in a humorous tone that "there are no aliens in Miami, in Bayside Marketplace -- at the moment," with a CGI alien appearing next to him.

Officers were responding to a riot incited by a group of roughly 50 teenagers who were setting off fireworks at people and looting stores, several news outlets reported.

"Officers that were on that scene were having a little trouble containing it," Horta said in the video. 

Authorities then called a city-wide emergency "to which every officer in the city responded, that's why you saw so much police presence for that call to contain that crowd," he added.

The incident led to the temporary shutdown of nearby roads (archived here), which reopened about an hour later. The Miami Herald reported authorities arrested four teens at the scene.

AFP has debunked other claims of extraterrestrial sightings here.