On Thursday afternoon inside Disney Hall—one of the most beautiful buildings in Los Angeles —more than 100 students and their families had mostly finished celebrating their graduation from high school, and were filing out of their theater seats, when someone who wasn’t one of the kids graduating, reportedly leaped over the railing from a second-story balcony and slugged at least one of the graduates.
A brawl followed. And a top probation official was reportedly knocked down at some point in the confusion.
Those getting their diplomas included 29 young people who are in residence in one or more of LA County Probation’s youth facilities.
The Probation Special Enforcement Operations unit, which according to probation leadership was called to the site, reportedly managed to quell most of the brawl.
One of the two videos of the incident that WLA has acquired shows that some of those reportedly involved in the fights ran out of Disney Hall, down the escalators and into the attached parking lot, where according to a second video WLA has acquired (see photo below), it appears that guns were drawn by officials, and brawlers were contained.
“The safety and security of all Los Angeles County youth are of the utmost importance to the Los Angeles County Probation Department,” wrote Probation officials in an email describing the incident, which was sent a few minutes before 9 p.m., clearly in the hope of getting ahead of the rumors that began circulating about the post graduation debacle by early evening on Thursday
“The Probation Department will continue to work with our neighboring law enforcement agencies and partners, such as the Los Angeles County Office of Education, aiming to celebrate the accomplishments of our youth while working towards creating a safer community,” continued the official email.
When still more brawlers showed up outside Disney Hall on the sidewalks along Grand Street, and people passing by reported hearing shots fired. The LAPD arrived, blocked off the area, and began making arrests, according to probation sources familiar with the situation.
Another source who was present at Disney Hall, also told of at least five shots being fired during a scuffle outside the building, which was separate from the brawl inside. No one was hurt, but some saw the resulting five bullet casings on the ground.
The county agencies involved in the graduation included LA County Probation, Probation Education Services and the Los Angeles County Office of Education known as LACOE.
Biden’s USA, Newsom’s State, and GasCON’s county! What did you really expect? Like voting, next year try mailing out their diplomas!
Figures, doesn’t it?
This was a train a coming – astounding that these guys, surely largely gangsters, were outside of an institution. A rival or twenty showed up to settle some scores and a cluster ensued. Probation is lucky this wasn’t a whole lot worse. Their Special Enforcement Unit should not have been “called” – they should have been there. When are County leaders going to wake up?
The special enforcement unit was there…..
All you white racists rally know how to show yourselves. Funny how you make anonymous comments about situations you know nothing about. Sad pathetic grown men taking the time to comment is laughable. The biggest “gangsters” are our the politicians and morons like you.
@ Anonymous…..what happened?
Um, Anonymous – looks like you aren’t exactly using your name. Second, this has nothing to do with racism – it’s about public safety. Did you read the chaos that this caused that involved another agency?
If you have other information that updates the facts in Celeste’s article, please share. If this wasn’t gang related, please share. If these were not incarcerated people brought into the community, please share.
Hey Anonymous, took me about 15 seconds of my life to post. You should spend more time typing yours, the last sentence does not make sense. Yes, please fill us in on these scholars and angels we know nothing about.