HUNTINGTON BEACH: A THIRD UGLY FOURTH : Residents Angry at Facing Annual July 5th Cleanup

Hugh Matheson sat defeated Wednesday on the front lawn of his two-story home on this corner of 8th Street and Orange Avenue. The 71-year-old man held a sprinkler head in one hand while the other smoothed the trampled grass and crushed buttercups he faithfully watered for 15 years.

“It was the mobs. They knocked my sprinkler out,” Matheson said, searching for the pipe to which the sprinkler was once attached.

He and other downtown residents examined the damage Wednesday in the aftermath of Fourth of July disturbances that left Huntington Beach resident Christopher Albert, 21, dead, two other men with stab wounds, 104 people arrested and debris strewn all over the streets.

City workers clad in orange jackets patrolled the streets north of downtown with garbage bags. Street sweepers helped collect spent firecrackers, old socks, beer cans and broken beer bottles. And many residents were left with anger.

A livid Gay Hogan took the day off work to replace a side living room window that was smashed by unruly crowds. The night before, she and her neighbors tried in vain to keep the mobs away from their porches at 7th Street and Orange Avenue, spraying them with garden hoses. But their tactics didn’t work.

“I have yet to get a call from the police,” said Hogan, who reported trouble but said police were too busy to respond. “This is unbelievable. The partying should stop. Everybody should go inland!”

From the second-story deck of her home Tuesday evening, Hogan and her husband watched as a bus bench was overturned onto the street, a neighbor’s trash can was set on fire and yet another neighbor’s yard became a party spot for strangers.

“We take pride in our homes and our yards,” Hogan said. “Now I’m going to have to pay $100 to repair my window and make up for my day off from work.”

Residents could be seen picking up trash from their property and surveying their lawns from behind their white picket fences. For Lloyd Scaglione, he purposely lined his fence with potted plants, hoping to deter trespassers.

“I guess the flowers and the gate didn’t help at all,” Scaglione said, eyeing his broken pots on his property near Olive Avenue. “I made sure before the parade that the gate was closed. I thought for sure people would have been more considerate and wouldn’t go beyond the gates.”

As bad as it looked, the damage had been more than cosmetic.

Albert, walking with friends, was shot in the chest at 11 p.m. at 10th Street and Pacific Coast Highway after arguing with three men, Police Lt. Dan Johnson said.

Police later arrested Estebon Quiroz Jr., 22, and Matthew Wayne Raymond, 21, both of Riverside, and Roy Casey Becerra, 22, of Corona. Quiroz was arrested on suspicion of murder and Raymond and Becerra were arrested on suspicion of being an accessory to a homicide, Johnson said.

About 10 minutes after the shooting, two men, one from Huntington Beach and one from Lake Forest, were stabbed at 7th Street and Acacia Avenue after they got in a fight with another group of young men, police said. They were reported in stable condition Wednesday.

Also, seven police cars were damaged by bottles and bricks--more than were damaged last year. Most of the 104 arrests were for public drunkenness, illegal fireworks, vandalism, burglary and assault, Johnson said. Most of those arrested were released early Wednesday.

For Taco Bell general manager Albert Andrade, the precautions he took Tuesday night also weren’t enough. Andrade and two employees closed the eatery about 10 p.m. and stood outside the restaurant patio, telling loiterers to move on.

When three partyers refused to leave the premises, Andrade called the police.

“They were ready to brawl and I just wasn’t up to it,” he said. “So they were arrested.”

While police tended to the fatal shooting a block away, Andrade could do nothing but watch as a group of about 10 apparently intoxicated people snatched the restaurant’s patio umbrella from its stand, lit it and ran down the street hoisting the blazing umbrella like a waving flag.

Authorities began releasing those arrested about 5:30 Wednesday morning, including Marty Bliss of Huntington Beach.

“The city is going to pay legally for humiliating me like that,” said Bliss, who was charged with possession of illegal fireworks and possession of marijuana.

Bliss said he was driving near Orange Avenue and 11th Street, looking for his brother, when he was arrested.

“I was the designated driver and my brother was drunk, so I was picking him up,” Bliss said. “The fireworks were in the car but weren’t mine, and the marijuana was in the jacket I was wearing, which also isn’t mine. They’re going to pay.”