Caught On Video: Dozens Of Cars Involved In Wild Sideshow Near Port Of Oakland
OAKLAND (KPIX) -- In a scene captured live by Chopper 5 Wednesday night, hundreds of spectators and dozens of cars staged a wild sideshow near the Port of Oakland.
California Highway Patrol said they were responding to the sideshow at 7th and Maritime over Twitter at 11:53 p.m. Wednesday.
Sideshows are illegal, but they're known to be very popular in Oakland for years and have become a chronic problem near the Port of Oakland that's resulted in injuries and wrecked cars.
Numerous videos from Oakland sideshows appeared on YouTube this past summer.
Video captured by KPIX's Chopper 5 showed several cars spinning around, doing donuts inside a massive circle of people and cars before one of the participants swerved into the crowd, sending onlookers running.
Four police cruisers were spotted a distance from the scene monitoring the situation. They stayed back and kept their distance and did not move in until more backup arrived.
Several CHP units eventually arrived on the scene and plugged the roadway on both sides, blocking all the vehicles from leaving. At least 100 cars were seen trapped inside the area corralled by the phalanx of officers.
There were also reports of shots fired from people in the crowd.
In an effort to escape, a van in the circus of vehicles plowed through a fence onto railroad tracks and became stuck in its attempt. Numerous people were then seen trying to push the van free.
Later, another vehicle that appeared to have crashed into a gate in perhaps an escape attempt caught fire. Chopper 5 captured video of huge flames coming from the car as it sat fully engulfed.
Dozens of people were detained after officers finished breaking up the gathering early Thursday morning, according to CHP officials.
Officers were able to interview more than 200 people at the sideshow and cited and released several people, according to the CHP.
An investigation into the sideshow is ongoing.
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