Lowrider Car Show May Not Return

The gang-related violence Sunday during a lowrider car show in Pomona in which one person died and nine others were injured has left the show’s promoter shaken and uncertain about the future in Southern California of the Southwest’s premiere tour of its kind.

Killed in the melee at the Los Angeles County Fairplex was Jose Ramos, 32, of Inglewood. Five of the injured were reported in stable condition Monday at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center. The others were treated and released.

Police arrested nine adults and two juveniles for investigation of various offenses, ranging from assault with a deadly weapon to being drunk in public.

The Fiesta Tour, featuring 620 customized vehicles and attended Sunday by an estimated 20,000, was part of an eight-city traveling display that was to include a visit to Osaka, Japan, in September, promoter Al Lopez said Monday.

But after the gang fights within the fairgrounds and on nearby Pomona streets forced early closure of the show and more than 100 police officers to be summoned to quell the violence, Lopez said there will be no other stops in Southern California this year.

Lopez said he has canceled a June 2 show in San Diego and an Oct. 18 event in Los Angeles that typically draws more than 42,000 people to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Sports Arena. The rest of the schedule remains intact, but whether he will return to Southern California next year is in doubt, Lopez said.

He called lowriding “as much a part of our cultura as tortillas and chorizo. But lowriding and lowriders are the victims of this gang situation that is totally out of control in Southern California.

“How can I bring people to an event and put them at risk?” asked the publisher of the 200,000-circulation Low Rider magazine. The publication specializes in articles about customized cars that ride low on their suspensions.

Despite widespread rioting in the county 2 1/2 weeks earlier over the Rodney G. King beating trial verdicts, Fairplex officials said they permitted the lowrider show to go on because it had been staged before in Pomona without violence.

But Monday, fair officials placed a ban on booking the show again, Fairplex spokesman Lynn Saunders said.

Pomona Mayor Donna Smith, whose city has no control over Fairplex events, said fair officials should have acted sooner.

“If I had been asked, I would have been nervous about it and would have asked the promoter to postpone or cancel,” she said.

Lopez said Monday that he had beefed up security at the show to include 52 Pomona police officers and 80 private security guards. He also banned alcohol sales to ward off violence after the recent rioting that rocked Los Angeles.

But Lopez said he believes that the King verdicts had very little to do with Sunday’s disturbance.

“It was Raza against Raza,” the promoter said. “When I was walking through the crowd and seeing Chicano against Chicano, it really hurt.”

The fighting broke out shortly after noon, about an hour after the show opened, Saunders said. Security guards ousted the troublemakers, who carried their fights to the fairgrounds parking lot and onto city streets.

After several other incidents were reported, officials closed the show at about 3 p.m. and summoned another 50 police officers from neighboring cities. But the violence continued for another four hours as troublemakers lingered in nearby Ganesha Park and in neighborhoods, Pomona Police Lt. Leon Sakamoto said.

Lopez, a car show promoter for five years, said gang members have always been part of the crowd attracted by the event. But he estimated that they make up only about 5%.

He characterized the majority of lowriders as members of working, middle-class families whose hobby is customizing their cars, sometimes spending up to $20,000.