Bar Crowd Melee Leaves 2 Wounded in Pasadena

In the midst of an altercation by patrons leaving Romeo’s, a popular Pasadena club in the heart of Old Pasadena, a California Highway Patrol officer accidentally shot a police officer and a bouncer early Friday, authorities said.

Seven people were arrested, five women and two men, on charges that included interfering with a police officer, assault with a deadly weapon and public intoxication.

Police and witnesses were at a loss to explain the melee, involving at least 20 patrons of the club.

“They were all drunk, screaming back and forth,” said bouncer Mark Underwood, whose co-worker, Devin Beasley, took a shotgun pellet in the side of his knee. “Who knows what it was about?”

Underwood said the shotgun had discharged after the CHP officer had used the weapon as a cudgel on a man officers were trying to subdue. “I saw (the officer) had his finger on the trigger, so I started moving,” Underwood said. “I got behind a Blazer that was parked there. My friend didn’t quite make it.”

The CHP would not comment on specifics of the shooting, saying that it was under investigation by the department’s shooting team.

The wounded Pasadena police officer was in stable condition, and the bouncer was treated and released.

Merchants and workers in Old Pasadena, a colorfully remodeled district of restaurants, bars and clothing stores which developers sometimes tout as “Westwood East,” said that the incident reveals a persistent underside to the neighborhood.

Despite the transformation of the Old Town, which was a Skid Row 10 years ago, “you can go a block in either direction and still get mugged,” said Vincent Terzo, co-owner of a neighborhood bar on Colorado Boulevard next door to Romeo’s.

He and his sister, Jennine, said that the alley behind their bar, The Thirty-Fiver, was a frequent site for fistfights between departing patrons of Romeo’s, a basement dance club with marble columns and neon strip lights.

“I almost got hit myself recently,” said Jennine Terzo. “Someone was taking a swing at somebody and they just missed me.”

Ivan Sasaki, who works in a surfing shop on Fair Oaks Boulevard, said he avoided the alley. “A lot of things happen back there, a lot of fights,” he said.

According to Pasadena police, the fight began in the alley and spread to an adjoining parking structure, where somebody fired a shot. Police subsequently retrieved a .357 Magnum with one spent round, said Lt. Greg Henderson.

Pasadena police arrived at the scene shortly after a passer-by had hailed a Highway Patrol radio car. Officers from both departments tried to break up the disturbance, Henderson said.

CHP Sgt. Mike Brey said matters escalated when a man in the alley became “loud and boisterous,” forcing officers to try to subdue him. The shotgun discharged during the scuffle, he said.

The CHP would not identify the officer holding the shotgun. “We have to give the officer a chance to notify his family in the area of what happened,” said Brey.

Underwood said the unruly man was resisting arrest. “They were trying to get the guy down, but he didn’t want to be handcuffed,” Underwood said. “The CHP guy first hit him in the head with the butt of the shotgun, then he started swinging it with his finger on the trigger. It was very stupid.”