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SANTA MONICA, Calif. () — A suspect has been arrested after a shooting during a fight on the Santa Monica Pier sent people scrambling for cover on a busy Sunday night at the popular tourist hotspot.
Santa Monica police say an 18-year-old is now under arrest. Two people were hurt, including the suspected shooter.
Two people were shot after a large fight at the Santa Monica Pier Sunday night, police said.
Witnesses said the shooting happened just outside of the arcade around 9 p.m., and things quickly became chaotic.
“We captured this video of some of our friends playing some games, and we actually captured the shooting. It was crazy. Watch this,” witness Dave Jonsson said in a video posted to Instagram.
The video, which is circulating widely on social media, is now part of the police investigation. It shows a child playing in the arcade being scooped up by an adult as gunfire goes off.
Cellphone video shot from a distance and zoomed in shows people running in panic in a desperate scramble for cover.
One woman told Eyewitness News she was standing outside of a public restroom when she heard four to six gunshots in quick succession. She said she quickly ducked into a bathroom stall. Others ducked behind vendors’ carts.
“A lot of screaming. Everybody was screaming and running. It was crazy,” witness Jenna Hannaford, who was visiting from Wisconsin, said.
Police say it all stemmed from a large fight between multiple people on the pier. One person was shot in the arm and taken to the hospital.
Officers from the Santa Monica Police Department pier outpost ran to the aid of the man shot in the arm as the shooter appeared to take off.
“Everybody was pretty much in a state of panic momentarily, for at least five or 10 minutes. Then, everything settled. It appeared that the kids ran, the guy who shot, and then the police began to take control of searching for… what they did is they closed the exit for a while. They were looking car by car for a potential shooter, and then they went to the beach. It lasted for a couple hours. There was a lot of traffic around here,” said witness Dennee, who works nearby.
The investigation lasted for several hours.
Police said a second injured person — identified as 18-year-old Jaysawn Williams of Rialto — eventually showed up at a nearby hospital with a graze wound. Investigators later determined that he was the suspected shooter, and Williams was arrested on charges of assault with a firearm and grossly negligent discharge of a firearm.
Investigators say they are now reviewing surveillance video of the incident. The cause of the fight was not immediately known.
The Sunday night gunfight comes as tourists begin flocking to the beach in droves for annual spring breaks.
“We were here to enjoy our night, and this kind of cut it short,” Hannaford said.
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