Police account shows mayhem spread fast in San Diego suburb

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Law enforcement agencies were quickly overwhelmed when a protest over George Floyd’s killing turned violent in a San Diego suburb, unleashing hours of attacks on businesses and fires that destroyed two banks, according to an official account released Tuesday.

The May 30 outburst in the normally quiet suburb of La Mesa has been the most disruptive of the many peaceful protests in the San Diego area to demand changes to police practices. The clash came against a backdrop of Floyd’s death, and tensions were also high over video of an arrest of a black man seen being pushed by a white police officer.

The city of La Mesa said its 12-page timeline and three-page summary were based entirely on information from its police department. While it doesn’t include input from non-law enforcement sources or the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, which was heavily involved, the minute-to-minute account is the most detailed yet of unrest that shook the city of 60,000 people and destroyed many downtown businesses.

After peaceful protests the previous day, the sheriff assigned 28 deputies to La Mesa for the rally and had another 28 nearby if needed. The California Highway Patrol positioned officers to keep Interstate 8 flowing.

The freeway connecting San Diego to western Arizona was shut down around 3:30 p.m. after demonstrators started marching on the freeway, less than two hours after the protest began with about 200 people. The sheriff sought help from other police agencies in the county, who would send a total of 250 officers throughout the night.

The first order to disperse was at 5:09 p.m., one minute after a sheriff’s deputy was struck by a rock, according to the account. As rocks continued flying, authorities began using tear gas at 6:02 p.m. and the first pepper-ball gun three minutes after that.

At 8:16 p.m., police reported that demonstrator Leslie Furcron, 59, was “down.” It was later reported that a La Mesa police officer shot her between the eyes with a bean-bag round. Police Chief Walt Vasquez said officers are trained to aim for the torso. Furcron was recently released from a hospital.

Mayhem spread rapidly: a fire truck was set ablaze; a Vons grocery store and later a Walmart and a Target were looted; a sporting goods store and beauty shop were burned; “subjects with bats” walked near a police station.

At 11 p.m., people forced their way into a Chase branch and set the bank on fire. People were “tearing money” out of an automated teller machine at neighboring Union Bank, which was engulfed in flames by 11:29 p.m.

The sheriff’s department asked the California National Guard for help around 11:30 p.m. but troops were deployed in Los Angeles.

The unrest persisted until a fireworks explosion at 3:26 a.m. Sunday, two hours after the city imposed an emergency curfew. Volunteers began showing up around 6:30 a.m. to clean up debris.

On Tuesday, the U.S. attorney’s office said a San Diego man has been charged with possessing Molotov cocktails during the protest.

Zachary Karas, 28, was arrested after authorities say he failed to heed an order to leave. By that time, several fires had been set and Karas was found to have two glass bottles containing wicks and gasoline, prosecutors said in a statement.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Karas had an attorney to speak for him.

Tensions had flared in La Mesa after a witness video taken May 27 showed a white police officer pushing a black man who was stopped and accused of smoking on a trolley platform. Amaurie Johnson, 23, was taken into custody on accusations of resisting arrest but was not charged with a crime. He was not cited for smoking.

The California National Guard, acting on San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore’s request, deployed to the region for five days after the unrest, seeking to prevent additional violence.

“The crowd was more than we anticipated,” Gore said last week. “We were outmanned. We’re not going to let that happen again.”