Witnesses: Rose Bowl brawl wasn't tied to USC-UCLA rivalry

Some witnesses to the brawl in a Rose Bowl parking lot before the USC- UCLA football game Saturday that sent two men to the hospital with stab wounds dispute claims that the incident was caused by school rivalries.

Police initially said they believed the fight was over fan rivalry. But friends of the victims denied that was a factor.

"It was just drunken guys looking to start a fight," said Renee Breceda, the girlfriend of one of the stabbing victims, Joshua Dirling.

The fight started about 4:30 p.m. in parking lot 1 on the north side of the Rose Bowl, where dozens of people had been tailgating and drinking since 6:30 a.m. in advance of the game that evening.

Police called to the scene found 50 to 75 people fighting, said Cmdr. Darryl Qualls of the Pasadena Police Department. It took more than 15 minutes to break up the brawl, resulting in minor injuries to two officers, Qualls said.

Witnesses said the fight broke out after a group of tailgaters threw a football that accidentally hit a black Mercedes-Benz belonging to another group of fans who also had been partying for hours.

Joshua Dirling's brother, Matthew Dirling, said a plastic surgeon at Huntington Memorial Hospital told him the tip of a knife is still embedded in his brother's cheekbone, but that it was best to leave it there until doctors see how the wound heals.

Police arrested Arturo Cisneros, 44, on suspicion of attempted murder. Joshua Elder, 23, and Steve Radu, 27, were arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer.

ALSO:

Winds, rains returning to L.A. Sunday night

-- Alan Zarembo, Ben Bolch and Mike Hiserman in Pasadena

Photo: A van is loaded with people arrested for being drunk and other violations after two people were stabbed in a pregame brawl in the Rose Bowl parking lot. (Anne Cusack, Los Angeles Times / December 4, 2010)

Comments

[Hezekiah]

If people cared as much about the education of their children as they do about moronic sports games, we'd live in a utopia.

[Ken]

Some say LA is a USC town. 99 percent of LAngelons didnt even attend USC or UCLA for that matter. I dont get why anyone cares?

[Jaime]

What a sad day, bunch of morons cant control their alcohol. So what if a football lands on a car, you go apologize, and you do the right thing, if there is a dent offer to fix it period. Who cares which school these idiots root for, im sure it was fans of both schools who knows maybe even alumni, does it matter. Well i for one know the rivalry having seen it for many years since i was a kid, as well as a long time ucla season ticket holder. I have seen the growth of idiots added to both fan bases. Its also called arrogance and stupidity. Those these hoods in jail for attempted murder. Glad the season is over.

[Jaime]

typo....in previous comment. meant to type Throw these hoods in jail and let them rot for attempted murder.

[AlexisB]

Amanda:

The only place where I've had frozen fruit and full cans thrown at me, just for wearing an opposing team's colors, was just outside Memorial Stadium in Berkeley.

Perhaps you're remembering your own home games.

[Ivan from Glendale]

Knives? Stolen/Borrowed Mercedes Benz? When did the Raiders return to LA?

[Anonymous]

A precursor to getting NFL in downtown LA, if AEG has its way. NO NFL IN LA.

[Harold]

Americans simply can't handle their liquor. It's a sad fact, but alcohol should be banned from sporting events because Americans are not mature enough to handle alcohol.

[joe ramirez]

A lot of males think we still live in caves, where you have to assert your male dominance by use of force ( not use of brain) for anything as insignificant as having a soft football hit your car...even when it probably didn't even leave a scratch.

Seriously! You get ticked off because a football hit the side of your mercedez?
Don't take a mercedez to a tailgate party if you don't want it to get touched.

These are the types who start fights if someone brushes into them at a bar or in a crowded place.

[Geo]

You can take the fan out of the ghetto, but not the ghetto out of the fan.

[Amanda]

@Karl Dahlquist

Photo caption says that those pictured were intoxication arrests after the incident, not people involved in the brawl.

[joe ramirez]

And how come adults have forgotten how to have fun without alcohol? With some extraordinary exceptions, we all knew how to have fun as children without alcohol.

[Matt]

Huh, I was unaware that one had to attend a school to be able to root for it.

[CaliPHOBE]

Both schools have "Kolleeforneeya" in their names. 'Nuff said.

[Tom F.]

The arrogance in this comment thread being displayed by those who attended these schools is disgusting. LA has no NFL team, UCLA and USC have long since been adopted as the supplements for that missing market. To assume that it was instigated and carried out by non-alumni only because the article states that the fight wasn't started by the school rivalry is ignorant, there is now way to know whether all 75 people involved weren't associated with either school. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that at least a few were. If you really want this rivalry and any support of a college team closed to those that didn't attend your school, then have playing in half empty stadiums with no TV or radio feed. The alumni support alone will never get your team on ABC for the national game of the week. Although the incident was unfortunate, it is just as disturbing to hear people quickly blame "outsiders".

[pierre]

A bunch of losers and low lifers that deserves to be locked up with their own kind and get a dose of their own medicine in the slammers.

[savecalifornia1]

3 guys are jailed each with million dollar bail and a couple guys stabbed....

Was it worth it? REally??

[trojandude207]

Hey when I was a little kid my parents parked on the street a block away from the coliseum. We knocked back a couple of hires root beers before walking to the game. It was safe...( Both of my parents graduated from USC) Then in 1964 we started parking in the lot.
All tailgate parties are okay within a confined space.It is the ones where the crowd starts to think their ticket entitles them to the whole area that trouble starts. Footballs start flying in random directions and things get ugly.
Neither school is clean here. Neither has a great family safe place to play. Argue all you want about the Rose Bowl, but even UCLA is a visitor there . there are no campus connections. I have had tires slashed there. It is just the environment we have allowed to exist.
When asked a few years back whether I wanted to buy season tickets or a Big Screen TV, I opted for the TV now I park out in front of the place and argue with the announcers.

[DH]

I agree with Tom F. that most of the comments posted about this story are arrogant and ignorant. I was at the game and arrived around 3:00 at a reserved parking lot. I observed many USC and UCLA supporters tailgating with each other and enjoying themselves without any problems. Unfortunately, I also observed many young people, especially young women really drunk by 3:30 and a young woman was removed from the stadium by paramedics during the first quarter. The craziest incident I observed was a 20 + male in SC gear enter the women's bathroom (which was already too crowded) with a major line outside. A young woman in UCLA gear took him by the arm and with a smile on her face escorted him outside -- but it was pretty ridiculous.

[What Idiots!!!]

I attended the game and was parked on the north side but I arrived at about 5:30 p.m. There where a lot of idiots at that game. Just nasty, drunk fools-women and men. All wearing USC and UCLA shirts and hats. It is a shame that Pasadena police did not effectively patrol the golf course parking areas. In the future the police should have some patrol personnel on horseback. The lighting this year was better-but still needs improvement.

[Mick]

I am not an Alum, but I have been a Trojan fan since I was 10. I have been a season ticket holder for over 20 years. I love to tailgate with friends & family. We have alcohol at our tailgates. NO ONE in our group gets drunk & stupid.
It is a personal responsibility issue. Sadly I've seen "fans" from every school being idots. And yes, alcohol is the common thread. 99% of the people who go to games go for the fun, it is sad that so few can screw up the fun for so many.

Fight On!

[yimnotsmart]

I never went USC or UCLA , I am a SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA native, that supports SC . I have been an SC fan for almost 30 years. Ever since I heard about Marcus Allen goin there. I learned that after the RAIDERS last super bowl win. :-( I never had enough money to go there , but I love the school, I love the Lakers and Raiders. Because I grew up knowing OJ(before hisFreddy Kreuger act), Ronnie Lott, Marcus Allen, Cheryl Miller, etc all went there. They all were winners and all of them were people I looked up to. Just because you went to these schools don't mean you own them, it just means you worked a little harder and made your way to a prestigious school. These idiots give a bad name to FANS WHO LOVE THESE SCHOOLS WITH ALL OUR HEARTS even though we never were lucky enough to attend a class.
When REGGIE got unjustifiably banned from the school that hurt me, when we lost to TEXAS that hurt, too! GO TROJANS, HIRE JEFF FISHER, and FIGHT THE SANCTIONS!

[critic]

When are people going to realize that every event in the outdoors does not give them the right to be intoxicated beyond being able to drive, these venues are on public property and No form of public intoxication should be allowed end of story, what happened to going to a football game to actually watch the game?

[HasAConnectiontotheSchools]

I saw the videos of this fight on YouTube. It looked to be a bunch of hood-rat losers that bought USC or UCLA jerseys with their welfare checks.

Why are these idiots so adamant about going to a game in which they have absolutely NO connection to the schools? All these hoodlums want to do is just get drunk and start trouble. I was at the game, alarmingly, the people most out of hand were the people that were obviously not from either school.

[Amanda]

@ Alexis B

I'm sorry you had a rough time at Memorial Stadium. I'm not sure, however, why you made this about me, since I didn't assert either way what CAL fans and game attendees are like. I was simply refuting another commenter's statement that nastiness doesn't happen at the Coliseum, when it surely does; in fact, I can be certain that it probably has happened everywhere.