County Man Dies, 3 Hurt in Violence at Rock Concerts

A Fullerton man died and at least three other people, including two from Orange County, suffered serious injuries at weekend rock concerts in Long Beach featuring heavy metal performer Ozzy Osbourne, police and hospital authorities said Sunday.

The dead man was identified as John Loftus, 22, of Fullerton, by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office. Long Beach police Lt. Bart Day said Loftus “fell over backwards because he was probably overdosing, hit his head, broke his neck and died.”

Day and convention center officials downplayed the death, saying that it was an accident and that the number of injuries and arrests at the concerts were not out of the ordinary.

But paramedics and officials from Long Beach hospitals said they have been swamped with emergency calls as a result of Osbourne’s concerts, held Friday and Saturday night at the Long Beach Convention Center/Arena. A third concert at the 14,000-seat arena went on Sunday night.

Long Beach Fire Department dispatcher Ken Driver said paramedic units were tied up “for about four hours” Saturday night transporting patients to St. Mary’s, Memorial and Pacific hospitals. He said the number of calls was “definitely much higher” than the Fire Department normally receives during rock concerts at the convention center.

Osbourne has drawn criticism for his hard-driving songs with lyrics that allude to violence and drug use. In January, the parents of John McCollum, a Riverside teen-ager who committed suicide in 1984 while reportedly listening to an Osbourne song titled “Suicide Solution,” filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court against the singer, claiming that the song helped push McCollum over the brink of depression.

Paramedics brought Loftus, already in full cardiac arrest, to St. Mary Medical Center about 9:20 p.m. Saturday, hospital spokeswoman Barbara Ogle said. He was pronounced dead by doctors 10 minutes later of an apparent broken neck.

Details of the events leading to the death and injuries at Saturday’s sold-out concert were sketchy.

Dr. Dale Harrier, director of trauma and critical care at the medical center, said Loftus and three other patients were brought in at the same time. Paramedics told emergency room personnel that all four had jumped off the balcony onto the next level, the physician said.

“We asked one kid why he jumped and he said, ‘for life,’ ” the doctor said.

One of the three survivors, Eric Hobbs, 17, of Newport Beach remained comatose Sunday. Tom Dearinger, 23, of Buena Park was in guarded condition with a fractured skull and a concussion. A third, Timothy Mestas, 17, of Los Angeles, was in fair condition with numerous cuts and bruises.

Harrier said doctors were told by paramedics and friends that two stabbing victims--one of whom died--brought into the hospital had also attended Osbourne concerts shortly before they were knifed. But Lt. Day, the field commander outside the convention center on both Friday and Saturday nights, said police had no reason to believe the stabbing death was related to the concert.

Police found the unidentified man early Saturday morning, about two hours after the Friday night Osbourne concert had ended and nearly a mile from the convention center, bleeding from a stomach wound. He died late Saturday night.

Day said police were not even aware of the second stabbing victim, who was brought into St. Mary’s about 4 a.m. Sunday morning with a punctured heart. Harrier said the man, who has not yet been identified, was in critical condition but “doing well.”

Harrier said that yet another man was injured after he jumped off a bridge in Long Beach on Saturday afternoon. The unidentified man, who was treated at the medical center and released, told doctors that he was despondent because someone had stolen his tickets to that night’s Osbourne concert.

Harrier said the emergency room doctors were “greatly concerned” by the number of patients who apparently were coming in from the Osbourne concerts.

“We became upset at what was happening,” Harrier said. “We have not had this degree of tragedy because of a concert before.”

At Pacific Hospital, which was alerted by St. Mary’s that it would be receiving overflow emergency patients Saturday night, three people were brought in by paramedics for “alcohol-related” causes, nursing supervisor Elizabeth Feeley said. One was comatose and was transferred to Harbor General Hospital in Torrance.

George Matson, vice president and general manager for the convention center, said the incidents were not that unusual for rock concerts. “Normally, at an event of this size, we have 10 to 12 people treated for various things,” Matson said. “On Friday, we had 12, on Saturday, 19.”

When asked if the Convention Center would book acts like Osbourne again, Matson answered: “We provide facilities for entertainment. The people demand entertainment, we will book any event, whatever the people want.”

‘Real Polluted’

Metallica, the warm-up act for the 37-year-old Osbourne, was still on stage when three fans fell or were pushed from an arena balcony about 8:30 p.m., It was not immediately clear if the three knew each other.

Mestas, reached by telephone in his hospital room, said he did not remember too much.

“A lot of people were real polluted (under the influence of alcohol or drugs), then they started jumping off the balcony, or they were pushed off,” he said.

Mestas, a high school junior, said he did not know if he jumped off the balcony or was pushed. His mother, Helen Mestas, said her son had been drinking straight vodka and had smoked a couple of marijuana cigarettes.

“A lot of people were like slamming--you know, they get in a circle and hop, just hitting each other, bumping into each other--and it got too crazy,” the teen-ager said. “A lot of chairs were going around. . . . I just remember waking up (at the hospital) with a tube in my mouth.”

‘Feeling of Danger’

One man who attended Saturday’s concert said there was “a real feeling of danger in the air. . . .”

“I’ve been through all kinds of bands, from rock to punk to new music, but this was really strange,” said Greg Martel, 28, of Huntington Beach. “There was a guy next to us with a Richard Ramirez (the suspect in the Night Stalker killings) look, he was doing some strange thing with a Rosary, he was making weird motions with his hands. . . . I’d say seven out of 10 male adolescents there were under the influence of drugs to the point of incoherence.”

Tim Ryan, senior events coordinator for the Convention Center, said management was still trying to piece together accounts from Saturday night’s concert, and would have “no comment until we’ve seen all the documentation.”

Ryan said, however, that medical personnel and the security force for Sunday night’s concert would be increased.

Times staff writer Alan Goldstein contributed to this story.