Wild LA party grows out of control as fire-breather, vandals wreak havoc and injure cops

A wild Los Angeles crowd featuring a fire-breathing man caused havoc on Sunday night, vandalizing train cars, businesses and a police cruiser, injuring four police officers.

Hundreds of individuals, some dressed in party gear, gathered around midnight Sunday in downtown LA and rapidly devolved into vandalism and property destruction, The LA Times reported. 

The mob originated as an unsanctioned music event at a rooftop party spanning two parking lots, the LAPD said in a statement. The parties were promoted on social media without the property owner’s knowledge, per the LAPD. Some 700 people attended the party and when police were called to break it up, some 100 revelers broke off and embarked on a destructive vandalism spree. 

The scene was chaotic, a torch-wielding man blew flammable liquid into the flames and shot fire into the air, another man ascended a light pole and rested his feet on a street sign as he filmed himself with his cell phone as a helicopter hovered overhead.

When the LA metro’s A Line train stopped on Washington Avenue, troublemakers began spray-painting the train’s exterior and hammering on the windows. Police received two calls of disturbances on trains, but no arrests were made in response to either of them, an LAPD spokesperson told the LA Times.

“Around midnight, approximately 50 trespassers blocked two A Line trains traveling northbound and southbound at the intersection of Washington Boulevard and Maple Street, south of downtown Los Angeles. The trespassers began to spray paint on both trains and gained entry into the southbound train and sprayed paint on the interior of the train. During the incident, no operators or passengers were harmed and service was delayed around 20 minutes,” the LA Metro said in a statement.

LAPD officers decked in riot gear stood in a long line across the street from the unruly mob. Some individuals were so brazen that they posed for selfies in front of a defaced LAPD squad car, and shot fireworks and kicked the police vehicle as officers attempted to drive away from the scene. Police declared an unlawful assembly and fired non-lethal bullets into the crowd in order to clear the scene, police said. A fire was reported on one of the rooftops, police said.  Four officers were injured in the fracas, according to a police statement. 

“We were on top of a parking lot. So what ended up happening is that it got too crazy, it got too crowded,” a witness told KCAL. 

He said attendees were using lighters and hairspray as makeshift flamethrowers. The witness said that the mob were pelting police with beer cans and water bottles and shooting fireworks in their direction. 

“That’s kind of like the energy of those type of shows, people are just going to go there to let out all the frustration and anger that they have built from life, family, society,” the witness told KCAL. 

No arrests were made in response to the incident, but the LAPD vowed to find those responsible.

“Our officers were heavily outnumbered and so the decision was, clear the area rather than make arrests. But I can assure you we will find those responsible,” Los Angeles Police Department Cmdr. Lillian Carranza told the LA Times. 

Nearly every business near the scene had been covered with graffiti, including a Panda Express and dialysis center. One business suffered broken windows. 

“This type of vandalism happens every day but never to this extent, we really need to teach the future generations how to care for one another. How would you like it if this happened to your home?” Dr. Afshin Akhavan, who runs the House of Health clinic on Washington Boulevard, told the LA Times.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the incident “unacceptable” and pledged to get to the bottom of it at a Memorial Day event.

“It is unacceptable under any and all circumstances, and those people who perpetrated this have to be held accountable to the full extent of the law,” Bass said.