Hotel Party Erupts Into Melee; 1 Dead

Guests at an Inglewood hotel became virtual hostages in their rooms Saturday after a rap music party that attracted hundreds of revelers ended in a violent melee that left one party-goer dead and others rampaging through a ballroom, snatching gold chains off people’s necks and engaging in a running gun battle.

Unsure whether gunmen were hiding somewhere in the labyrinth of 390 rooms, SWAT teams from the Inglewood Police Department and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department conducted an 8 1/2-hour search, going floor by floor to see if guests were safe or being held by gunmen.

The flak-jacketed police officers, some who had descended onto the hotel’s roof by helicopter, combed the corridors and stairwells looking for several gunmen seen fleeing into the hotel. Police carried shotguns and automatic weapons as they methodically probed the 10-story Days Inn Park Plaza Hotel, located across the street from the Forum, where the Los Angeles Lakers and Kings play.

In some instances, guests who left their rooms opened elevator doors to find heavily armed officers rounding them up for questioning to see if they had taken part in the disturbance or had seen the missing gunmen.

“This is my first visit here, but I certainly didn’t expect this,” said Japanese businessman Yoshiaki Fubushima, who arrived in Los Angeles the day before. “I didn’t like this. It was a big surprise.”

Fubushima was one of dozens of guests who were detained Saturday for questioning and then released as police tried to piece together the chaotic events. Hotel officials would not say how many guests were in the building when the violence occurred although an assistant manager said there were 50 in the hotel when the sweep was conducted.

By the time the ordeal was over and guests were allowed to return to their rooms, no gunmen had been found. “There were no hostages ever taken at any point in this situation,” said Inglewood Police Sgt. Harold Moret.

Police also detained 125 party-goers who were there when violence broke out. But by nightfall Saturday, investigators were still trying to determine what ignited the violence that resulted in threearrests, all for murder.

“It was a party that got out of control,” Moret said. “It appears to be some kind of feeding frenzy with many people fighting, many people throwing bottles and eventually shooting at each other.”

Two men were wounded in a fierce shoot-out that began in the hotel ballroom and ended in the parking lot. In the panic that ensued, a man identified only as Roderick Williams was killed when he was hit by a fleeing car that sped through the parking lot, police said.

The disturbance began about 1:30 a.m., when a fight broke out during a rap music party that doubled as a birthday celebration for one of the guests, Moret said.

The party featured a mixture of notable rap musicians and novice singers. Party-goers interviewed by The Times said band members from such rappers as Tone Loc, N.W.A. and Mix Master Slade were among the artists present in the crowd, which swelled to about 300 people, some coming as far away as Chino, Dana Point, Compton and East Los Angeles.

When an argument erupted over who could use the microphone in the crowded ballroom, the dispute triggered a brawl, Moret said. Fistfights quickly escalated into bottle throwing. Someone smashed a liquor cabinet near the bar, another kicked in a door, while someone grabbed a fire extinguisher and began spraying the crowd, witnesses said. Potted plants were uprooted and a light standard outside the hotel’s front lobby was knocked down.

“We were having a good time when all hell broke out,” said Bobby Pickens, 35, of Los Angeles. “People started getting robbed. There were fights, gunshots and chaos. . . . Women started taking off their high heels and just started hitting each other.”

As he emerged from the hotel with several friends, a man who identified himself only as “Ralphie” said he was the birthday guest for whom the party was thrown and was at the microphone when the melee began. Sporting cuts on his face, he said he did not know what triggered the violence, but that it quickly mushroomed.

Although Moret said the violence was not gang-related, other party-goers said the presence of gang members fueled problems.

Several young people, still dressed in party clothes, gathered on the lawn across the street from the hotel Saturday. They disputed police accounts and said the party was crashed by gang members who entered wearing white T-shirts and sneakers.

“They weren’t dressed to go to a party,” said Calvin Sutten, 30. “They were dressed for trouble.”

Sutten said that when the gang members arrived, tension filled the ballroom. “I could see that it was going to get out of control.”

Sutten, who is visiting Los Angeles from Columbus, Ohio, said a girlfriend invited him to the party. He said he witnessed the gunfire from the window of his ninth-floor room. He said a minor fistfight broke out in front of the hotel and then four men with guns, one that appeared to be an automatic, emerged from the group. They opened fire into the crowd.

“It’s a wonder 20 or 30 people didn’t get hit,” he said. “It’s a miracle.”

Police identified only one of those arrested, Delton Prescott, 24, of Los Angeles. He was charged with murder, attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. Two other Los Angeles men were charged with murder and attempted murder. Prescott was treated at a nearby hospital for a hand injury before being booked. Another person was arrested during the SWAT search for allegedly possessing cocaine in her room.

Throughout the day, investigators were combing the parking lot and hotel looking for evidence. A discarded revolver was found on the grass outside the hotel. The shirt and tie of Williams could be seen where he had been struck by the car.

Yellow chalk marks were drawn around more than two-dozen shell casings in the parking lot and sidewalk in front of the hotel.

“It is like a war zone here,” Moret said as he pointed to the bullet holes that flattened the tire of one car, peppered the windshield of a blue Cadillac and that tore through the front plate-glass window of the hotel.

Despite the shootings, some hotel guests emerged Saturday unaware of what had taken place. Several guests said they slept through the night in their rooms, only learning about the violence when they attempted to go downstairs in the morning.

“We came out of our room to go to breakfast, and there was a SWAT team in the elevator. They were wearing uniforms, with machine guns,” said German tourist Stefan Immel, 22, a computer programmer from Dillenburg, West Germany. He and a friend, Ralph Seibel, 19, a student, said they are on a monthlong sightseeing tour of the United States.

The SWAT team frisked the two men, asked them questions and then let them leave the hotel, Seibel said.

‘They were very polite,” Seibel said. “In the movies, police are mostly brutal and rude.”

The two German tourists missed their morning flight for Houston, and their luggage remained in their rooms. They waited, sitting on a curb in the hotel parking lot. They had come to see the United States firsthand because “it’s a country you only get to know by the movies,” Seibel said.

“We knew Los Angeles was kind of a dangerous place,” he said. “If you want to get a good picture of the United States, this is part of it.”

Times staff writers Marc Lacey and Deborah Schoch contributed to this story.