Police fired “less-lethal rounds” (like rubber bullets) into rowdy crowd during a punk rock show in Northeast Los Angeles on Saturday. The lineup featured a collection of lesser-known local bands including Dead City, Barrage, Wacko, N8NOFACE, Section H8, Clorox Dream, Self Sabotage and Alpha & Omega.
It occurred near the intersection of the 5 and the 110 freeways, between Dodger Stadium and the Los Angeles River. Specifically, it happened in Egret Park, under the Riverside Drive overpass across the 5 freeway offramp from Elysian Park.
There were reportedly up to 2000 attendees present. According to KTLA, there were “some revelers setting off fireworks while others disrupted traffic.” Police were called in to disperse the crowd at around 7:00 p.m., when they shot less-lethal rounds directly into the pit in an attempt to break it up.
The authorities add that there were no injuries reported and no arrests made. However, one Twitter user claimed that they had friends at the show who had been in the pit when the police started firing, and provided a picture of the bloody bruise allegedly caused by one of the less-than-lethal rounds.
Local band Dead City seem to be responsible for organizing the show, and claimed that there was also tear gas involved, although there has been no footage of this, nor have other sources confirmed it at this time. They were also the act performing at the time of the police’s arrival according to their statement, “Thank you to everyone who showed and all the people who made this possible. Respect to all the people who stayed for our set as the pigs shot rubber bullets and tear gas at us while we played.”
A Twitter account called New York Year Zero was able to provide video of the less-lethal rounds being shot into the pit, saying “LAPD really showed up to the punk show last night and shot less-lethal rounds directly into the pit” and “cops opening up the pit the only way they know how (shooting it).”
A street photographer called StreetWise LA added some video of the crowd, the bonfire and the fireworks that the attendees had been setting off earlier in the night. They also credited the show to having been organized by ‘Dead City Punk.’
Arts & Entertainment Instagram account Tiny World also got some drone footage of the concert, which they edited to highlight parts from across the whole event.
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