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BlogRiot in Huntington Beach Sunday 7/28/2013

Looters breaking into a bike shop in Huntington Beach

Sunday night a violent group of rioters broke away from the thousand gathered at Huntington Beach for the Vans U.S. open for surfing. Vehicles, street signs, newspaper racks, and a bike shop were damaged during the incident.

According to police and witnesses the violence started after a fight broke out, this spread along Main Street and formed into many smaller fights throughout the beach.

When police officer showed up to take control of the situation, they were greeted with violence. Rioters threw rocks and bottles at police, and managed to damage several squad cars. Police came equipped with riot gear and fired back at the rioters with pepper balls.

One bike store was shown being looted on a video posted on facebook after a group threw a stop sign through the store’s front windows. An employee who was still at the bike shop during the looting said “We were all huddled inside the building and we had the lights off because all the people were up here mobbing around, and I was inside and I saw them tearing down the stop sign,” he said. “As soon as that stop sign came down, I knew that stop sign was coming through the window. And sure enough, two seconds later, it did.”

One rioter took off after grabbing a bicycle from the shop, after others in the crowd around the store stepped in and protected the store’s merchandise from looters.

By Monday morning the shop’s window was covered by wooden boards.

The police had the situation under control before 10pm, in total police made eight arrests on suspicion of failure to disperse, according to a statement made by the Huntington Beach police department.

Police officers ask that anyone with information, videos, or photos of any crimes related to the violence that took place Sunday night contact the Huntington Beach police department at 714-375-5066.

(Looters breaking into a bike shop in Huntington Beach)