Crime & Safety
7 Injured in Hotel Melee
One person was stabbed in the fracas and authorities are trying to piece together what happened.
Police were trying to determine Thursday what led to a melee inside the lobby of a Buena Park hotel, where seven people were injured, including a man who was stabbed and seriously wounded, authorities said.
The fight inside the lobby of the Commonwealth Airport Inn Hotel at 8180 Commonwealth Avenue erupted about 10 p.m. Wednesday, said Buena Park police Sgt. Rick Pinto and Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Steve Concialdi.
“One person was stabbed and six others were injured in the lobby fight,” Pinto said early today. “We haven’t yet sorted out the details of what happened and what led to the fight.”
At the root of the melee was a woman, who, though not a guest at the hotel, tried to recharge her phone in a lobby outlet, a news videographer reported from the scene.
She was confronted by the hotel manager, who ordered her to leave. When he tried to forcibly remove her, a fight broke out between her and her two companions on one side, and the manager and members of his family on the other, according to the videographer.
A man in his 20s was stabbed during the fight and hospitalized in serious condition at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange, Concialdi said, adding that another man in his 20s suffered a head injury and was being treated at the same hospital for moderate injuries.
Additionally, a woman in her 20s was taken to St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton for treatment of minor injuries she suffered when she was punched in the face, and a third man was taken to St. Jude’s for treatment of knee injuries, Concialdi said.
Two females -- a juvenile and another woman in her 20s -- were treated at West Anaheim Medical Center for injuries they suffered in the fight, Concialdi said. Another juvenile female suffered minor injuries and was treated at the scene, he said -- the only person involved in the melee and not transported to a hospital.
With all but one of the combatants hospitalized early this morning, there were no immediate arrests, Wyatt said.
--City News Service, photo via Shutterstock
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