"It just ruined our whole night,", gee you think?
www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2005/08/01/s1a_wellparty_0801.htmlTeen's party ends in melee with police
By Rochelle Brenner Gilken, Thomas R. Collins
Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
Monday, August 01, 2005
WELLINGTON — The coming-of-age party for a 15-year-old girl ended in a mini-riot between guests and deputies in which at least two people were shocked with Tasers, dozens were hit with pepper spray and nine were arrested.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said gang members circled around, threw beer bottles at patrol cars and attacked deputies.
But Crystal Rodriguez said it was the sheriff's response that wrecked her big day.
"It just ruined our whole night, she said. "I was crying and crying and crying and everybody was trying to calm me down."
For Crystal's traditional Hispanic Quinceanera — similar to a Sweet 16 — a room at the Wellington Community Center was decked with purple flowers and purple balloons, and girls wore purple dresses.
Deputies showed up after getting a call about a fight 45 minutes after the party was supposed to be over, according to the sheriff's office.
A village ordinance requires a deputy to be present at events where alcohol is served, but the off-duty deputy left by 11:30 p.m. Saturday, the scheduled end of his shift and the party.
Deputies arrived to find the quarrel was over, but 300 people were still gathered, including some acting "unruly and hostile" toward the deputies, Sgt. Edmund Suszczynski wrote in a memo on the incident. Rodriguez's mother, Marilyn Rodriguez, said she thinks about 175 people remained.
Deputies had to use "pepperball guns, Tasers, batons, fist and elbow strikes" to control people and disperse the crowd, Suszczynski wrote.
In addition, 10 to 20 people fled "after being struck, contact tasered or hit with pepperball rounds while attacking deputies."
Trevan Hansen, 19, who had been arrested, kicked out the back driver's side window of a patrol car. Friends said he did it because he couldn't breathe inside the vehicle.
No deputies were injured, but Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue evaluated several guests and took one to a hospital for face and head injuries, said Capt. Don DeLucia.
The incident was so jarring, village officials are rethinking whether to continue to rent out its building.
"I think we're gonna have to evaluate the whole situation, starting with the kind of events we host... to the ability of customers to serve alcohol," said Jim Barnes, director of leisure services, which includes the community center. "Even though it was a one-shot deal, there's gotta be lessons learned so it doesn't happen again."
Rodriguez paid $1,065 for six hours in the room where the Wellington council holds its bimonthly meetings. It is often booked on weekends for private parties such as weddings or bar mitzvahs.
On Saturday night, the dance floor was packed when the DJ put on Crunk rap music, according to guest Bianca Ramiro, 18.
One guest bumped into another on the dance floor and spilled a drink, several guests said. Two girls exchanged words and two guys confronted each other. Party-goers defused the argument, cleared the dance floor and the DJ called for peace, said Eddie Vega, 21, Rodriguez's cousin.
Vega and other guests said the real chaos started when the deputies arrived, firing their weapons in the area of women and children who were simply trying to leave. Vega said he was shoved with a baton, and his uncle and cousin were shocked with Tasers and arrested.
He said there may have been teenagers scuffling with deputies, but the situation wasn't as volatile as it was portrayed by deputies. He said the deputies were confrontational toward people who weren't involved in the earlier fight.
"It was almost like they treated us like we were terrorists," he said.
The sheriff's office will review its handling of the incident, including whether more than 20 units were adequate to protect deputies. There was no information Sunday that indicated the deputies did anything wrong, said Lt. Jeffery Lindskoog, who is based at the Wellington substation.
"Any crowd-control devices, when a deputy is threatened, appears to be justified," Lindskoog said.
Guests said they got caught in the crossfire of pepper spray because officials gave conflicting orders. Deputies inside the purple-draped dance hall told people to leave. Deputies outside told people to go back in.
Monica Garcia, 30, of Boynton Beach said her husband was arrested after getting trapped in the middle. She said Arturo Garcia is not in a gang, doesn't know the people who fought and simply wanted to leave.
Frustrated at being told to go back and forth, her husband shouted an expletive at the deputies and five deputies pulled him away from his relatives, stretched out his arms, pushed him against the wall and shocked him with a Taser in his sides, Garcia said.
Arturo Garcia, along with eight others, was taken to the Palm Beach County Jail and charged with disorderly conduct, battery on an officer and resisting arrest with violence. He was out on bond and back at work as a cook Sunday evening.
"I think they got over-happy with the damn Tasers and the damn pepper spray. I think they went real wild with it," Monica Garcia said.
Guests said the pepper spray caused several people to vomit, including a 5-year-old girl. One man allegedly had a seizure. Another woman said she saw her 27-year-old son fall after being shot with a pepperball.
"I just saw my son drop in front of me. I thought they had killed him," said Maria Magana, whose son, Adam Magana, was among those arrested. "I'm getting flashbacks."
Samantha Vega, 16, said she was holding her 3-year-old cousin and fumbling for keys when a deputy aimed a pepperball gun at her.
"He was shooting at the floor and everywhere else and he pointed the gun at me. My little cousin was scared. She said 'I want to go with my mommy,' " said Vega, who is Eddie Vega's sister.
She has seen fights at Quinceaneras before — including her own — but never like this.
"Mine was nice until it broke into a fight like every other Quinceanera, but it wasn't like this one. This one was real bad when the officers started bringing the guns out."