Redondo Lagoon Melee Prompts Policy Review

Alarmed that a private party at Seaside Lagoon in Redondo Beach ended in a one-hour melee Sunday night, the city’s harbor director said she may recommend that the City Council restrict future rentals of the open-air park.

A gunshot was fired during the disturbance, which broke out shortly after 8:30 p.m. when several suspected gang members jumped a fence into the private party after the hosts told them they could not come in.

The bullet apparently did not strike anyone, Police Lt. Tom Doty said, and none of the more than 300 people at the party asked for first-aid from paramedics, who were called to the scene by police.

“It was a fight, so there were some bloody noses and those kinds of things, but most of the people were just interested in getting the heck out of there,” Doty said.

“That was our interest, too,” he said. “We wanted the situation under control and we wanted the crowd to disperse, so we weren’t interested in stopping people to make arrests.”

Thirteen Redondo Beach police units and three patrols from the Hermosa Beach Police Department cleared the area after the violence broke out, Doty said.

One Los Angeles man was arrested on an outstanding traffic warrant stemming from Sheriff’s Department citations, Doty said, but the possibility of his involvement in Sunday night’s disturbance was not clear.

Lifeguard Tim Dornberg, one of four lifeguards on duty at the lagoon that night, said he saw the event disintegrate from a peaceful and controlled--if somewhat loud--party to a violent melee in less than a minute.

“I would consider them a good group. The people in charge were very cooperative,” Dornberg said. “Other than some noise complaints, there was nothing unusual or out of the ordinary up until the time of the incident.”

When the fighting broke out, Dornberg said, “everybody did a pretty good job of keeping a situation that could have been much worse from getting too out of hand.”

Witnesses told police that the fight started when one of the uninvited men refused to move back from a stage where women in a “best body” contest were modeling swimsuits.

The man who rented the lagoon for the party, William Jackson, 26, of Carson, said one of the uninvited men punched a security guard and several others began fighting with party guests.

“If it wasn’t for our security, it probably could have been a lot worse,” said Jackson, who said he had paid $900 for a liability insurance policy and $500 for security to assure that the event would go smoothly.

“I don’t think there’s anything we could have done to prevent it,” he said.

Harbor Director Sheila Schoettger said Jackson complied with all city rules and regulations regarding private use of the lagoon, for which the city charges $500.

“The lagoon has been open for public use for parties for 20 years, and I think this is the first incident of this type,” Schoettger said. “We can always hope that it’s the last.

“But obviously we have to look at this and review all our policies and make some recommendations to the mayor and council . . . to prevent this kind of thing in the future.”

Schoettger refused to say exactly what she would propose until she had spoken with City Council members.

Jackson said he and two friends have staged parties for up to 200 people before, although those gatherings were at private homes and on public beaches.

For this event, they sold $8 tickets in advance and spread the word by passing flyers to friends and family. No one was allowed to buy tickets at the door, he said.

Jackson estimated on his rental application that up to 400 people would attend.

“I don’t think we’ll do anything like this again,” he said. “If I do it again, it’ll be indoors and on a smaller scale.”