World Series celebrations in Los Angeles went from unmitigated joy to maximum chaos on Wednesday night, ending with reports of flying fireworks and looting.
After the Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in the biggest game of the season, baseball lovers took to the streets in downtown L.A. According to CBS News, officers with the NYPD showed up in riot gear after sports fans made their way to the area around the Crypto.com Arena, where streets had been closed to vehicle and foot traffic. The tactical alert reportedly went out around 9 p.m.
When fireworks started going off, however, those officers “began to move the crowd,” CBS reports. A mounted patrol also joined the effort, which appears to have escalated tensions.
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The Los Angeles Police Department issued a dispersal order at 10:43 p.m. PST, according to NBC News, just under two hours after the Dodgers clinched their win. The LAPD claimed that “various projectiles [were] being thrown” at officers, and later, that people had been seen looting nearby businesses.
“People were excited and having a good old time, but people got out of control and started looting and jumping on top of a bus,“ one witness told NBC News.
Once the driver of the bus, who was still inside at that point, disembarked, “they all started lighting fireworks inside the bus, jumping on top of the bus, dancing,“ the witness added. Eventually, that bus ”completely blew up," as seen below.
According to local news, the LAPD canceled its tactical alert by 3 a.m., by which point its officers had made a total of 12 arrests, for looting, failure to disperse, and stolen property. A police officer was reportedly taken to the hospital.
The chaos comes after a nail-biting game, where an early lead by the Yankees gave way to five Dodgers runs in the fifth inning, bringing the two teams level. It remained a back-and-forth contest until the eighth, when the Dodgers secured a 1-point edge, ultimately winning the game 7 to 6.
