SAN BERNARDINO - It took 34 law enforcement officers to end a brief melee after a car allegedly struck a pedestrian Saturday night, police said Sunday.
Around 7:45 p.m., police responded to a call that a vehicle had hit a pedestrian in the 1500 block of West Fifth Street.
Lt. Rich Lawhead said police attempted to keep the motorists safe from what officers assumed was a hostile crowd because of the collision.
"When they (officers) showed up, the crowd was unruly," Lawhead said Saturday night.
According to relatives who were hosting a football theme party, a father holding his 1-year-old son walked across the street to get to his car. At that point a car turned from Tia Juana Street onto Fifth where it hit another car. The impact pushed the second car into the father and his child.
Danny Gonzales, who was at the party, said that people ran out into the street to see if the motorists and the father and son were okay. At one point, Gonzales said his mother ran into the street to get her mother away from the scene. She ran toward an officer who allegedly punched her causing her to lose consciousness, Gonzales said.
"Everybody just went wild after that," Gonzales said.
The crowd began throwing bottles, rocks and cups of beer at officers, Lawhead said. Before the incident was over, officers from several nearby agencies were called to assist.
There were four San Bernardino County Sheriff's deputies, three officers from Colton, six officers from Rialto and seven California Highway Patrol officers and 17 officers from the San Bernardino Police Department, Lawhead said.
Three people were arrested during the incident, Lawhead said. Names of those arrested with still unavailable Sunday.
Gonzales said his mother and two of his male relatives were the three arrested.
Lt. Gwendolyn Waters, public information officer for the San Bernardino Police Department, said police warned one man who kept wandering into the street during their investigation to stay away of the accident scene.
She said the man appeared intoxicated and kept trying to pick up objects from the accident area. After being warned more than once, an officer began to arrest him for public intoxication.
As the officer was putting on handcuffs on the man, a woman came running toward him, Waters said. Another officer, fearing that the woman was going to attack the arresting officer, struck her.
Waters said the pedestrian is believed to be at fault in the accident. Both he and the child were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Reach Jannise via email or call her at 909-483-9318.
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