Around 2:00 in the morning on Sunday, chaos erupted in the Gaslamp district in San Diego. The San Diego Police Department reports that a fight broke out, with a crowd gathering in the intersection of 5th and F Street.
SDPD says that the crowd had completely taken over the intersection and crosswalk.
Officers deployed pepper spray, a decision SDPD says was approved by a supervisor on scene, a step that follows their use of force policy.
However, one witness, Dalton Tingle, reports innocently walking across the sidewalk when he was hit by a blast of pepper spray. He says his husband experienced the same thing. Both were temporarily blinded.
“I’m just hit. I can’t see anything,” Tingle said, recalling the incident. “In the video, and in one of the videos you can see online, you can see my husband actually kind of gets lost and dazed.”
Tingle took a video after he got sprayed, which shows another woman approach officers attempting to detain another man, and officers spray her.
“There was no caution tape up, nobody told me to stay back that I recall,” Tingle said.
In a statement, San Diego Police said the social media video did not capture the full reality of the incident on Sunday morning. Furthermore, they say multiple people attempted to attack officers, one man throwing objects at an officer and another charging an officer.
They also say that one woman was stabbed in the face and another man was beaten so badly in the fight they were trying to break up, he was unconscious.
Two people were taken into custody that night: 27-year-old Thomas Guarino for resisting and obstructing a police officer, and 50-year-old Edwardo Hijar for resisting an officer with violence.
“There were several crime reports taken, several battery reports, an assault with a deadly weapon report, and an assault against an officer report where the suspect was not taken into custody,” Lt. Cesar Jimenez said in an email statement.
The San Diego Police Department has opened an internal affairs investigation into the matter.
SDPD’s full statement can be read below:
Often, social media videos do not provide a comprehensive view of an incident. Our Gaslamp Enforcement Teams are faced with varying factors when responding to incidents in the Gaslamp, including large crowds, active fights, high levels of intoxication, and more. This highlights the complexity of the issue our officers are dealing with and how quickly situations can escalate.
About the Incident:
On Sunday at 2:00 a.m., after bar break, Officers saw a large fight erupt at 5th and F Street, with both males and females violently fighting. A large crowd had completely taken over the intersection and sidewalk, so officers deployed OC spray on the crowd in an attempt to end the fighting. Officers witnessed one male repeatedly punching and kicking another man in the face and head until he was rendered unconscious. Officers attempted to deploy a Taser on the male; however, it was ineffective, and he fled the scene. He was quickly apprehended by responding officers and arrested for felony battery.
Officers moved onto the sidewalk to render medical aid to the unconscious victim. Several other fights broke out near the officers. They were unable to address these fights due to a lack of resources. The large crowd then turned its attention toward the officers. One man interfered with officers’ attempts to render medical aid to the unconscious man, and despite multiple warnings, refused to back away. When officers attempted to arrest the man for interfering, he began fighting them. A “Cover Now” was called based on the growing size and actions of the crowd.
A second man attempted to walk directly into the perimeter where officers were rendering medical aid and addressing the interference from the other man. An officer put his hand up toward the male while directing him to walk around. The man slapped the officer’s hand away, prompting the officer to deploy OC spray. He immediately charged toward the officer while swinging his arms and tackled the officer. Both the officer and the man fell to the ground, and the man wrapped his arms around the officer’s neck. Another officer deployed a Taser on the man, which allowed him to be taken into custody and arrested for assault on an officer.
Due to the crowd in the streets and vehicle congestion, medics and responding patrol officers were unable to reach the location. Officers remained in their perimeter while also starting to direct traffic to allow emergency vehicles to respond. During this time, numerous subjects in the crowd attempted to rush at and assault officers, leading to additional OC spray deployments. One suspect, who was deep in the crowd, threw a metal can at officers, which struck an officer. Although officers saw this suspect, they were unable to apprehend the person due to a lack of resources.
During this chaos, a female approached officers and reported she had been stabbed in the face. Officers saw that the female had a large laceration and puncture wound to her face. Officers worked to address her situation and later completed a crime report for assault with a deadly weapon.
As additional police resources slowly arrived, officers were able to place all arrestees into police vehicles. Officers also placed the male felony battery victim and the female stabbing victim into police vehicles to await medical attention. All police resources, arrestees, and victims were removed from the area. During this time, numerous radio calls of active fights were broadcast in the Gaslamp; however, there were no police resources available to handle them. Officers completed several additional crime reports for felony battery victims that resulted from these fights. There are numerous ongoing criminal investigations into this incident.
