Weekend Rap Concert : Sports Arena Guards Hurt as Gangs Turn on Them

Three security guards were injured at a weekend rap concert at the San Diego Sports Arena when members of two rival gangs circling the concourse inside the building turned on the 30-member security force assigned to watch them.

“We had heard that, for some reason, gangs show up at these things,” Sports Arena Vice President and General Manager Phil Quinn said of rap concerts, “so we put together a crew of about 30 security guards to keep them moving as they circled around the concourse.

“Things were fairly quiet until about 10 minutes prior to the end of the show, when a big fight broke out, not between the gangs but between the gangs and security. What we had done, in essence, was to create a new gang, consisting of our people.”

Black Eyes, Broken Wrist

The three injured security guards, whose names were not available, were treated by paramedics, according to police Sgt. Tony Johnson. Two suffered black eyes, and the third had a broken wrist, he said.

The fracas Sunday was the culmination of an evening of above-average violence--and above-average security--for a Sports Arena show. The concert, billed as “Nitro Tour,” featured performances by five rap acts--De La Soul, Too Short, EZE/NWA, Slick Rick and headliner LL Cool and was attended by more than 8,400 people, officials said.

“The crowd was relatively orderly going in,” Johnson said. “Everybody had to walk through 10 airport-type metal detectors set up at the entrances, and then, if they got a hit, arena security isolated them and checked them again with 34 hand-held metal detectors.

“As far as I’m aware, nothing was confiscated in the way of chains or knives or guns. What set off the metal detectors were things like change and belt buckles.”

Police spokesman Bill Robinson, however, said gang unit officers on the scene told him they saw patrons carrying in “knives, scissors and brass knuckles.” He estimated that upward of 100 concert-goers were involved in fighting during the night.

As the show progressed, “fights began to break out,” Johnson said, “and eventually it got to the point where (arena security officers) felt they could no longer handle the crowd, so they called us in.”

At 11 p.m., Johnson said, police set up a command center across Kurtz Street from the arena parking lot, with more than 50 officers on reserve to supplement the original force of 40 assigned to the arena. Generally, there are no more than 10 to 16 officers assigned to an arena concert, he said.

“Fortunately, as it turned out, we didn’t need them,” Johnson said of the reserves. “In the end, though many of the fights that had broken out on the inside continued on the outside, the crowd dispersed in an orderly fashion.

“Luckily, nothing major happened--aside from the attack on the security guards--although the potential was certainly there.”

By evening’s end, 11 arrests had been made, all for drunk and disorderly conduct, Johnson said. “We didn’t make any arrests for fights because we didn’t have any complainants.”

The Sports Arena’s Quinn credits not just extra police with helping alleviate problems, but also the fact “that we went into this whole thing prepared.”

“You track these type of shows,” Quinn said. “You watch what’s happening in other cities where they play before, and then you gear up for it and try to make it come off as smoothly as possible.”

Fights the Night Before

Gearing up for Sunday night’s rap show meant installing metal detectors and “beefing up security by about 25%,” Quinn said.

“The tour began on the East Coast, and there were relatively few problems until it came out West,” he said. “There were some fights in Las Vegas and more fights in Oakland the night before it came here, so we were prepared.

“And, under the circumstances, I think we got through the show very well.”

There will be no ban on rap shows at the Sports Arena as some industry insiders have speculated, Quinn said.

“I’m going to continue looking at these concerts on a show-by-show basis, instead of dealing with the entire brand of shows, the entire rap genre,” he said.