Crash into hydrant causes disorder

A massive crowd of beachgoers played in the geyser from a busted fire hydrant Sunday evening, but confrontations with Huntington Beach police led to three arrests and one man shot with a Taser.

A black Ford Mustang crashed into a hydrant at Pacific Coast Highway and Main Street about 6 p.m. Sunday, according to police. The rush of water on a hot day drew hundreds, then probably than a thousand, said police Lt. Mitchell O’Brien.

But outnumbered officers needed to clear the street so they could shut off the hydrant and investigate the accident, he said.

“It was hard to get people to stop messing around,” he said. “They were trying to get people away so they could shut the water off.”

Much of the crowd started to obey, and the water was shut off at 6:37 p.m., but Juan Carlos Fuentes, 20, Anaheim, didn’t follow orders, police said. When officers decided to ticket him for his disruptions, he bolted down the beach, followed by officers and much of the crowd, police said.

Two minutes later, police caught and arrested Fuentes on a service road near lifeguard headquarters, but his friends got confrontational, O’Brien said. A battle of words turned into a physical confrontation.

“A couple officers had some minor injuries, and the suspects had some minor injuries,” O’Brien said.

In the midst of the commotion, Fuentes’ friend Luis Jacobo Solorzano came up behind the officers and was hit with a Taser, police said.

The crowd yelled at officers to stop using the stun gun, according to a witness to the altercation who photographed it.

Ultimately Solorzano, Fuentes, and their friend Jose Ramon Macias, all from Anaheim, were arrested on suspicion of resisting arrest and delaying a police investigation, police said. They were later released.

As for the crash that started this series of events, there were no injuries and no one was arrested after the accident, O’Brien said.