A swarm of looters picked a gas station’s food mart clean early Sunday in Compton, California.
Video of the incident showed a mob that contained more people than could fit in the store.
One person wearing a hood smashed the door of an Arco station after a street takeover. Various individuals pulled items such as alcohol, cigarettes, and snacks from racks as others pushed and shoved from outside to enter and get their turn at looting.
The early morning incident involved more than 100 people, according to KCAL-TV.
One person was detained; however, no arrests were made, KABC-TV reported.
The clerk inside the store hid during the looting.
The Sheriff’s Department estimated thousands of dollars worth of items were stolen and even more damage was done to the store.
“This intersection, this goes down two to three nights a week. We hear the motors roaring, if you’re close by you probably can’t breathe after they got going,” Compton resident Ricky Finley said.
The Sheriff’s Department was quoted as saying it was “currently limited with their staffed personnel” and “couldn’t intervene with the giant takeover groups for safety concerns” and that they were “outnumbered.”
“That’s our number one problem is not having the personnel, the units to respond to street takeovers. If we have those personnel respond to just street takeovers there’s no one else left,” Deputy Miguel Meza said.
Meza said partnerships with other law enforcement agencies will be bolstered to fight street takeovers.
“The people who did this, I don’t think they are Compton residents,” Kevin Evans said. “We don’t tear up our own city like this.”
Compton Council Member Jonathan Bowers called for action and said Compton residents did not cause the damage.
“I am totally disgusted. I’m just upside down behind this. These kids coming in our city and just destroying it like this,” he said.
“In my opinion, the city has not done enough to quell this issue. There are other alternatives and ways to deal with this and I feel like we put it on the back burner and we’re dragging our feet as this thing is getting worse,” he said.
On the night of the looting at least three street takeovers took place in the Compton area, Sgt. Clarence Williams of the Sheriff’s Department said, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Williams said street takeovers occur “just about every weekend. We’re doing our best we can to try to assist the citizens in dealing with this issue.”
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Source: Western Journal Rephrased By: InfoArmed