Cinco de Mayo Gridlock in Santa Monica

Tens of thousands of people flocked to the Santa Monica Pier for a Cinco de Mayo celebration Sunday afternoon, creating gridlock on local streets and causing a huge traffic jam on the westbound Santa Monica Freeway, which at times was backed up for 10 miles.

Meanwhile, in South-Central Los Angeles, an early morning drive-by shooting broke up a Cinco de Mayo party, killing one man and injuring three of his companions.

The shooting occurred about 2:15 a.m. Sunday in the 600 block of West 61st Street, according to Los Angeles police. Adolfo Reyes, 24, of South-Central Los Angeles, was killed. Two of his friends were admitted to County-USC Medical Center with injuries; the third was treated and released.

No violence was reported at major Cinco de Mayo celebrations. At Olvera Street, the birthplace of Los Angeles, more than 10,000 people crowded the historic walkways, sampling food and listening to music. “Everybody was quiet and happy and having a great time,” said Sgt. David Torres of the Los Angeles Police Department.

And in Santa Monica, police said more than 60,000 turned out for the second annual Cinco de Mayo festival on the pier, which was hosted by two Spanish-language radio stations--KTNQ and KLVE--and featured Mexican music, food and arts and crafts.

The revelers were among hundreds of thousands who escaped the inland heat by fleeing to the beach. County lifeguards estimated there were 300,000 beach-goers from San Pedro to Playa del Rey on Sunday. Santa Monica played host to a crowd of 80,000 surfers and sunbathers--in addition to the crowd on the pier.

“It is packed! Packed!” said Colleen Krentz, a bartender at the Crown and Anchor Restaurant on the pier. “It looks like the pier is moving. There is not even any walking space. Everybody’s bodies are rubbing against each other.”

Lt. Dick Heineman, a county lifeguard at Santa Monica, summed it up this way: “Wall-to-wall people.”

According to the National Weather Service, temperatures were higher than normal for this time of year--in the low 90s inland and the low to mid-70s at the shore. The warmer temperatures and the holiday combined to create an unusually busy day for lifeguards across the county, although no serious problems were reported.

“Cinco de Mayo is becoming one of our biggest holidays,” said Lt. Steve Wood of the Los Angeles County Lifeguards’ Hermosa Beach station. “We’re having a lot of rescues, over 50 rescues. We’ve had a few bicycle accidents and we’ve patched a few people up. We are probably issuing several thousand warnings about riptides today.”

In Santa Monica, the watchword was traffic. The California Highway Patrol issued a SigAlert at 1:20 p.m., warning motorists that traffic along the Santa Monica Freeway was backed up from the beach to Crenshaw Boulevard. Police said local streets were also heavily congested.

“There’s thousands of people down here right now,” said one Santa Monica officer. “Every street that runs east or westbound or north and southbound in the downtown area is backed up. People are parking far away and walking because it is so hard to get through.”