5 Injured as Driver Crashes Fiesta Party : Suspect Pulled From Car and Beaten; Accused of Assault, Drunken Driving

Five people were injured Wednesday when a man drove his car into a crowd of several hundred partygoers gathered on Fiesta Island after a heavy metal concert.

Police said angry people in the crowd retaliated against the driver by dragging him from the car and beating him.

Martin Stockart, 27, was treated for head and chest injuries at UC San Diego Medical Center, where he is under guard and has been arrested on suspicion of four counts of assault with a deadly weapon (the car) and driving under the influence of alcohol, police said.

The rock group AC/DC performed at the San Diego Sports Arena until about 11 p.m., and afterward concertgoers and others gathered at the sandy, open Fiesta Island a mile away, a common site for large parties and bonfires.

At the concert, 15 people were arrested for offenses ranging from possession of alcohol to assault on a police officer and 80 traffic and drug- and alcohol-related citations were issued.

At Fiesta Island, according to police, Stockart was arguing with another man about 2 a.m.

“The suspect then yelled that he was going to get a gun,” said Detective Jerry Berner of the San Diego Police Department. “Evidently he changed his mind, gunned the engine and headed for the crowd.”

The car slammed into bystander Kimberly Myers, 16, despite warnings from others in the crowd, police said. It pushed her several feet, hit other bystanders as it careened about 100 feet through the crowd, and crashed into a parked truck, police said.

Richard Kukan, 19, of Chula Vista said he was hit by the car.

“I was walking through the crowd and I heard this car behind me and I saw the headlights coming over my shoulder,” he said. “It hit me in the back of the leg and I landed on my back. . . . Lots of people were running toward the car screaming.”

The angry crowd then dragged the driver from the car and beat him, police said,

Kukan was treated for bruises at Chula Vista Community Hospital and released on crutches Wednesday. Myers is in good condition at UCSD Medical Center, two others were treated at Mission Bay Hospital and one person was treated at Navy Hospital in Balboa Park.

In an apparently unrelated incident on the island, Thomas Cummings, 25, was in a pickup truck when someone in a green Chevrolet fired several gunshots at him, police said. He suffered a graze wound to the cheek and is in stable condition at Sharp Memorial Hospital.

Police said it was the first major incident of the summer on Fiesta Island. But Sgt. Larry Moratto said there is no need to tighten security there.

“Fiesta Island is certainly a concern of ours and we spend a considerable amount of time enforcing there,” he said. “We could close Fiesta Island tomorrow if we wanted to, but we’d just move the people to another area.”

“If you close down Fiesta Island because someone has freaked out, you ruin it for someone who wants to jog there, take out their dogs, drink a few beers and watch the stars or go night fishing,” he said. “You would be ruining it for a lot of people because of the actions of the few.”