Stores Looted In Santa Monica As Looting Overtakes Protests

SANTA MONICA, CA — After hours of rioting in the streets of Santa Monica Sunday, police slowly gained an upper hand on the chaos, arresting hundreds for violating curfew while armored National Guard vehicles rolled in to lockdown looted neighborhoods.

Armored police vehicles in Santa Monica used water cannons to break up mobs where looters broke into and set fire to businesses in the Third Street Promenade area and at City Hall. Among the hundreds arrested by Santa Monica police were some of the vandals and opportunists, who used the demonstrations as cover to loot. Nearly a dozen buildings or vehicles were set ablaze Sunday.

According to Santa Monica Chief of Police Cynthia Renault, the National Guard joined the fight to secure the streets by 8 p.m., and police were moving forward taking control of more and more pockets of the city.

"We will secure the city," she said late Sunday night.

A protest that started peaceful Sunday quickly turned violent, and residents hunkered down as the day erupted with sounds of sirens, helicopters, military vehicles and possible firecrackers or gunshots. Video shows some people breaking off from the peaceful protest, looting stores, taking items and running. A Road Runners shoe store was looted along with a neighboring Patagonia apparel store and the Sake House on Fourth Street just west of Santa Monica Boulevard, the Hot Topic and REI store on Santa Monica Boulevard, Bloomingdale's on Colorado Boulevard, and the high-end retailer Wasteland and a Chase Bank branch.

Armored vehicles from the L.A. County Sheriff's Department and a Santa Monica Police SWAT team in riot gear were using a water cannon to disperse a crowd at Santa Monica Boulevard and Fourth Street at as of about 5:30 p.m. Police also unleashed teargas on a mob near Ocean Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway by Tongva Park. Shortly after, protesters appeared to regather in Venice at Venice Boulevard and Oakwood.

According to NBC, a Los Angeles Police Department officer was shot in the leg amid protesting and looting at the Santa Monica-Venice border. She was hospitalized and is expected to recover. LAPD Assistant Chief Horace Frank said the incident is being investigated by Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery Homicide Division.

Looters smashed windows at Santa Monica City Hall Sunday afternoon and torched a sheriff's department patrol car outside the civic center. Police are telling the public to stay away from the downtown and Civic Center area, and all Interstate 10 and Pacific Coast Highway off-ramps into Santa Monica were closed by the California Highway Patrol as the situation escalated, the agency announced.

“We won’t tolerate looters or anyone who is inflicting damage to property in our community,” said Mayor Pro Tempore Terry O'Day. “The city and our police department will continue to enforce the curfew and arrest anyone who breaks the law.”

“We all have the choice to find ways to heal, to rebuild and to work through this together. Our community and businesses were just beginning to reopen as the county has lifted its health orders, and to have this hit today is just maddening,” added O'Day. Our message to our shopkeepers and restaurateurs is that we are here for you as we rebuild, and I am going to have a broom in my hand tomorrow at 9 a.m.”

#SantaMonica - Police Alert #2
Please stay away from the downtown and civic center area. pic.twitter.com/vNaMrlg7gz
— Santa Monica Police (@SantaMonicaPD) May 31, 2020

People are looting in Santa Monica and so far no police stopping them. Broad daylight. This is pure insanity. pic.twitter.com/CEA6UAiXfc
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) May 31, 2020

See more:

• Santa Monica Extends Citywide Curfew For Sunday
• Culver City Extends Citywide Curfew For Sunday
• Photos: George Floyd Protests Continue In Santa Monica