Mother arrested, accused of inciting riot among teens in Fort Myers

What started off with two teenage girls fighting on social media ends with a riot and a couple of arrests.

Fort Myers police say a woman drove a group of teens to a fight.

Iris Rivera Roman is now charged with inciting violence.

Roman declined to speak in detail to WINK News.

The fight was between mostly teenagers, almost 30 people fought on Canal Street.

Police arrested Roman and a teenager.

Investigators say Roman brought six teenagers including her own daughter to the fight.

“We returned home and there was a very large police presence on Canal Street and even larger presence of cars with a mixture of adults teenagers and even infants,” said one neighbor who lives nearby. “We’ve had violence in this neighborhood before and other areas but to see it spread out over almost a two-block radius, it was just shocking.”

According to an arrest report, Roman “created a substantial and unjustifiable risk.”

She and her daughter got involved in an angry Facebook exchange with another mother and daughter.

The two went to Canal Street and squared off with the other mother and even more teenagers.

Roman is accused of punching a girl in the face.

Roman told officers that if a fight was going to ensue, it was better for her to be there.

She is out on bond.

One neighbor said 10 years ago not even the pizza delivery guy would deliver to his house.

But the neighborhood has made progress since then and he prays what happened doesn’t ruin it.