A man who was severely beaten in an assault in Chula Vista has been tentatively identified by family members, police confirmed Sunday morning.
The Chula Vista Police Department said the victim was assaulted in the 1100 block of Alpine Avenue at around 5 a.m. Saturday by an unknown suspect or suspects who then fled the scene.
When officers arrived, they found the man unconscious and in critical condition.
The victim was transported to a local trauma center, where he remained unconscious Saturday night. Police said the man had no identification on him, so initially they didn’t know his name.
On Saturday night, officials released a photograph of a unique tattoo on the victim’s arm in hopes that someone would recognize the victim and contact police.
At 7:30 a.m. Sunday, Chula Vista Police Department Capt. Gary Wedge said the victim had been tentatively identified by family members, though police did not release his name.
The brutal beating remains under investigation, and officials are still seeking suspects. Anyone with information on the assault should contact the Chula Vista Police Department at (619) 476-5374.
A San Diego LGBT activist is leading a movement to recall embattled Mayor Bob Filner -- right on the heels of another previously planned, unrelated effort to recall the mayor.
Stampp Corbin, owner and publisher of “LGBT Weekly,” has initiated a formal effort to recall Filner. As dictated by city recall rules, he officially began the process with a notice of intention, which he published in a newspaper on Friday.
Corbin is the second San Diegan to organize a recall of the mayor, but the first to formally begin the process, amid allegations of sexual harassment involving Filner.
Special Section: Mayor Under Fire
A couple of weeks ago – right after former allies first accused Filner of sexually harassing multiple women – political activist Michael Pallamary announced he would lead a recall to remove Filner from office.
Pallamary, a longtime Republican Filner opponent, runs the Facebook page, “Recall Bob Filner.”
The page was created on Jun. 21 – before Filner’s sexual harassment scandal came to light.
In a previous interview, Pallamary told NBC 7 he has followed Filner’s career since he became a city councilmember and had been waiting for Filner to give San Diegans a reason to boot him from the mayor’s office.
Over the last two weeks, Pallamary’s Recall Bob Filner page has accumulated thousands of supporters. On Jul. 19, Pallamary held a recruitment rally at City Hall, calling for volunteers for his recall effort.
On Friday, Filner announced that he will undergo two weeks of intensive therapy to correct his behavior. However, he did not resign, as various leaders have requested.
After Filner’s press conference, Pallamary said that if the mayor does not resign by 5:01 p.m. Monday, his formal recall effort would begin.
But, now that Corbin is also leading a separate movement to recall Filner, there is some confusion surrounding the timing of Corbin’s effort, which could be a game-changer.
City rules are unclear on whether two separate recalls could take place simultaneously.
NBC 7 spoke with Corbin on Saturday, who said his effort is misunderstood.
"The fact that I did it one day before these other folks announced yesterday, that they were going to do it on Monday, what difference does that make?" he said.
Corbin said he and Pallamary do not know each, nor are they working together.
“He has not reached out to me. I have not reached out to him,” said Corbin. “I just want this to come to an end."
Corbin claims he started his recall on Friday to bring the quickest end to the chaos, and for no other reason or ulterior motive.
NBC 7 reached out to Pallamary to discuss Corbin's recall effort, but Pallamary said he would not be discussing anything regarding any recall until Monday.
Now, as far as recall rules are concerned, city code requires signatures from 15 percent of voters, or about 101,000 votes, in 60 days in order to get a special election.
The start time is crucial.
According to the recall process outlined by the City Clerk’s office, the clock starts ticking once there is a published notice of intention to circulate a recall petition.
Within 10 days, an affidavit stating that the notice has been published has to be filed with the City Clerk. Within five days, the mayor must be notified, and then, within 14 days, the mayor can respond.
Exactly 21 days after the published notice, the petition can be circulated among voters. The signed petition must be filed within 60 days after the notice of intent is published.
That leaves proponents 39 days to gather signatures from 15 percent of the voters in the city. A minimum of 101,000 signatures will then have to be verified by the City Clerk.
If there is an insufficient number of valid signatures, recall proponents get another try -- by filing a supplemental petition within 30 days.
Again, city rules are unclear on whether two separate recalls could take place at the same time.
Timeline: Filner's Time as Mayor
For his part, Pallamary has previously told NBC 7 that he has experience on his side.
In 1990 he successfully led a recall of city councilmember Linda Bernhardt. At that time, Filner also sat on the council.
On Saturday morning, the following message, in part, was posted to the Recall Bob Filner page by Pallamary:
“In between the rapidly changing landscape, we have a lot of work to do. Please continue reaching out to your friends and neighbors and also remember I did this before and am familiar with the ins and outs of this process. Thank you all for your support and vote of confidence.”
A 4-month-old baby boy died Saturday after being found unattended inside a hot car parked at an apartment complex in San Diego's El Cajon area.
Officials were called to the Belle Vista Apartments in the 500 block of north Mollison Avenue around 1:30 p.m. to investigate.
El Cajon Police Department Lt. Eric Taylor said officers found the child unresponsive inside a vehicle. Officers gave the baby CPR at the scene.
The child was then transported to Grossmont Hospital, where he later died, Lt. Taylor confirmed.
El Cajon resident and witness Larry Singleton said he was headed to the store when a group of neighborhood children came running up to him and said somebody had left a baby inside a car.
“It's hurts me to know that someone's baby passed away. It’s really sad,” Singleton said.
Singleton said he doesn’t personally know the baby’s parents, only that had they recently moved into the apartment complex. He said the baby may have been left in the car for several hours.
NBC 7 meteorologist Greg Bledsoe says it was 80-degrees in El Cajon Saturday at around 1:30 p.m., when the baby was found. Bledsoe says the highest temperature in the area reached 81-degrees.
Lt. Taylor said investigators are now interviewing witnesses and collecting evidence from the scene. The child's parents and family members were questioned Saturday.
On Sunday morning, the El Cajon Police Department said the parents had been arrested in the baby boy's death.
The child's official cause of death will be determined by the county medical examiner. Those details are forthcoming.
According to a study from the Department of Geosciences at San Francisco University, there have been at least 24 deaths of children left unattended in vehicles so far this year. In 2012, that number was 33.
Exactly one year ago, another 4-month-old baby was found unconscious and unattended inside a car in National City while the baby’s mother was shopping. That child survived, and the baby’s mother was arrested on child endangerment charges.
U.S. Park Police said clean-up efforts will continue Monday after an unknown person splattered green paint on the base and lap of the statue of Lincoln inside the Lincoln Memorial.
Officials said crews put a cleaning solution on the statue Saturday afternoon and tried to power wash the statue. They were able to get some of the paint off the granite base, but are having a hard time removing the paint from the marble statue.
The memorial was closed early Saturday while President Barack Obama delivered a speech at the nearby Korean War Veterans Memorial at 10 a.m.
Police have surveillance video of the vandal, and are now seeking a person of interest, sources tell News4.
A visitor saw the paint on the statue and on the floor around it just before 1:30 a.m. Friday. Jamie McDaniel, from Stafford, Va., told News 4 she and a friend called Park Police when they discovered the paint.
McDaniel said there was also Mountain Dew bottles containing some paint as well as green footprints leading up to the statue.
This is not the first time vandalism has been reported at the site of one of the National Mall's memorials.
Back in 2007, an oily substance was found on the memorial wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Police determined the case to be an act of vandalism and not an accident, The Washington Post reported. The removal process took weeks to complete.
Two additional incidents of vandalism have been reported at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the past. In 1993, the directory stands at the entrance of the memorial were burned, and a swastika and scratches were found etched in two of the memorials panels in 1988. Both panels were replaced.
The Lincoln Memorial, which was dedicated in 1922, is open to the public 24 hours a day.
U.S. Park Police Union President Ian Glick released the following statement:
"This type of reprehensible act is unfortunate but it did not permanently damage the memorial and this incident further underscores the need for the National Park Service to provide more funding and more personnel so as to provide a higher level of deterrence through officer presence. We are fortunate that this deplorable act can be remedied but caution that we are lucky that this wasn't an act of terrorism."
RELATED COVERAGE ON NBCWashington.com:\
MORE ON NBCWashington.com:
A quick-thinking couple who saw flames shooting from a Connecticut house as they drove by kicked in the door to save those sleeping inside.
Firefighters responded to a fire at 56 Laurel Street in Southington on Sunday. Officials said the fire appeared to have started in the garage of the house before quickly extending to the home, as well as the house next door.
By the time first responders arrived, those inside the home had already been rescued.
"We came around the corner and saw the garage had been inflamed and it was already going into the house, so we parked the car and ran up to the door, kicked the door in and started pulling the husband out," Jaclyn Piccirillo, one of the rescuers, said.
Richard Piccirillo, a firefighter himself, and Jaclyn said their first reaction when they drove by was to immediately run inside and make sure everyone was out.
The Southington Fire Department said it appears the homeowners did not even realize anything was wrong until their door was kicked down by the Piccirillos.
"I think the husband thought we were robbing them because he was swinging at us," Jaclyn said.
But that didn't stop the rescue. Without hesitation, the Piccirillos rushed to the home next door.
"As soon as we got him out we went next door because the guy's house was on fire and we went straight in and pulled him out as well," she said.
Without these two good Samaritans coming to the rescue, the situation could have ended a lot worse.
"I feel glad that I was here, did my job to get them out. "
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
A South Philadelphia row home exploded and collapsed Monday, sending eight people to the hospital and shifting the routine of the day into a panic-stricken morning for neighbors.
"I thought somebody dropped a bomb in the middle of my block! It went boom! And then you just seen glass fly from over the roof," said Danielle James. She was leaning out a second-floor window and talking to a neighbor on the sidewalk below at the moment of the blast.
"I went through every room and took my kids and just said, 'Get out now!'"
The explosion came from inside the basement of a home at 428 Daly Street around 11 a.m. The home is being rehabbed and a contractor was working on a water heater, according to Philadelphia Deputy Fire Commissioner Derrick Sawyer. That man was critically injured, suffering severe burns to his shoulder and arms.
The explosion destroyed at least three homes along Daly Street. From the air, debris of wood, brick and glass can be seen strewn in all directions.
In addition to the contractor, police say, seven others were hurt -- four other adults, a 15-year-old and two infants. The infants are one month and three months old, and their injuries are not serious.
Laura McColgan lives around the corner. "I'm still shaking," she said, recounting her experience.
"I was upstairs brushing my teeth. I heard a very loud noise. Not being sure what it was, I came downstairs and went out my back door," McColgan said. "I went outside and saw everyone running around the corner. I saw the building down, saw the smoke and smelled the horrible smell of gas as well."
Iman Sedaris was eating breakfast with his family when the earth shook. Sedaris grabbed his wife, daughter, a friend and as they ran out the front door, his neighbor yelled for help.
"My friend, oh my God, he has a small baby. He ran outside, I saw him and he said, 'Please, take my baby and I took him."
Daly Street sits in a residential area of South Philadelphia, populated by row homes. Emergency crews shut off traffic in the immediate area and went door-to-door to get people out of their homes, as a precaution. At the height of the evacuation 70 homes on Daly Street and Wolf Street, which is just South of Daly Street, were evacuated.
"It definitely was an explosion," McColgan said.
Fire officials confirmed that it was indeed a gas explosion. They talked to the contractor on the way to the hospital, according to Sawyer, and he told them he'd been working on the water heater because there had been some issues with the heater. Philadelphia Gas Works was on location to stop the leak, according to Sawyer.
"The main thing that's important right now is that we have nobody that died," Sawyer said.
The contractor is critically injured with burns over 22-percent of his body. He will be transferred to Temple University Hospital's burn unit. The other victims suffered minor injuries, according to Sawyer. At least one of the babies and the teenager lived in the homes on either side of the house that exploded.
According to Rebecca Swanson with the city's Department of Licenses and Inspections, four permits were issued for work on the home at 428 Daly. Three of the permits were for mechanical work that included the installation of a heating and air-conditioning system, interior alterations and plumbing.
During the three months of work, L&I inspectors came through 14 times to check the work and found no violations. Those permits were "finaled" on Friday. That means the work was completed, inspected and approved. The outstanding permit is for electrical work, which includes rewiring and installation of new outlets.
Philadelphia Police Officer Michael Duffy posted this Vine of Daly Street after the blast:
By mid-afternoon, people on Wolf Street were allowed back in their homes as well as residents on the odd-numbered side of Daly Street.
Everyone on Daly Street has been accounted for, according to city officials.
The Fire Marshall, L&I and PGW are all investigating the cause of the gas leak.
An arraignment was delayed Monday for Saudi princess Meshael Alayban, who is charged with human trafficking for allegedly enslaving a domestic servant from Kenya in her Irvine, Calif., condo.
Alayban, 42, did not appear in court and Orange County Superior Court Judge Gerald Johnston judge was concerned.
"I have a question to ask here," Johnston said. "In all cases in which a felony is charged, the accused shall be present at the arraignment ... Why is she not here?"
Attorneys Paul S. Meyer and Jennifer L. Keller said that Alayban did not appear in court as authorized and she has complied with all court orders.
"The nannies traveled to the U.S. on $10,000 first-class tickets, along with the family," they said in a statement. "These women had cell phones, Internet, Facebook, and the family even bought cable in their native language for them. They enjoyed full use of the spa, gym and pool and were often dropped off to shop alone at neighborhood malls, all paid for by the family."
Her arraignment was postponed to Sept. 20.
The case broke July 9, when the maid from Kenya managed to escape the condo and flagged down a bus driver who alerted authorities. Police arrested Alayban in connection with the case and opened an investigation into the discovery of four more women from the Philippines found unharmed in the condo.
Alayban was charged with human trafficking, the first case of its kind to be prosecuted in Orange County under Proposition 35, California's anti-human trafficking law.
If convicted, she faces up to 12 years in prison.
Alayban, who made her first court appearance July 11, was allowed to post the $5 million bail and was being monitored by a GPS tracking device. She was also ordered to stay in the county and she had to surrender her passport.
The Kenyan maid told police she agreed to work for Alayban for two years, prosecutors said. She was paid $220 a month for 16-hour days, seven days a week, with no time off. Among her duties -- cooking, cleaning and caring for at least eight people in the condo complex.
Alayban is one of six wives to a grandson of the king of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz. She came to the U.S. with her three children on a vacation visa and has been in Irvine since at least May, officials said.
NBC4's Jonathan Lloyd contributed to this story.
More Southern California Stories:
Work to remove a misquote on the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial got underway Monday.
The sound of a grinder could be heard coming from underneath the tarp covering the paraphrased quote on the memorial's "Stone of Hope". Close observers could even see Sculptor Master Lei Yixin and his team in silhouette hard at work.
The team is carving horizontal grooves over the lettering of the quote to match existing marks in the sculpture.
Many people, including poet Maya Angelou, complained after the memorial opened in 2011 that the paraphrased quotation took King's words out of context and made him sound arrogant.
The paraphrased quote on the monument reads: "I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness."
The full quotation was taken from a 1968 sermon King delivered at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church about two months before King was assassinated. He was speaking about what he would want in his own eulogy. It reads:
"Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter."
Angelou said the paraphrase "makes Dr. Martin Luther King look like an arrogant twit," the Washington Post reported in August 2011. "He was anything but that.... He had no arrogance at all. He had a humility that comes from deep inside. The 'if' clause that is left out is salient. Leaving it out changes the meaning completely."
The quote was paraphrased so that it would fit on the north side of the statue.
In December, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he reached an agreement with King's family, the group that built the memorial and the National Park Service to remove the paraphrase.
Ed Jackson Jr., the memorial's executive architect, told the Associated Press that the lettering will be replaced with horizontal "movement lines" that are already part of the design to show the movement of the central Stone of Hope out of a Mountain of Despair behind it.
"So what they're going to do is make more of those striations where the words are, and then they're also going to make striations on the other side... so it all matches up," said Carol Johnson of the NPS.
The sculptor, Lei, had recommended removing the inscription that way to avoid compromising the monument's structural integrity, rather than cutting into the granite to replace it with a fuller quotation.
Cutting granite out of the sculpture and replacing it to make way for a longer quotation would have also looked like a "patch job" forever, Jackson said.
Removing the inscription retains the integrity of the artwork, he said.
That design was inspired by a line from King's "I Have a Dream" speech: "Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope." That message is inscribed on the other side of the sculpture and will remain.
Visitors to the memorial were disappointed by the partially obstructed view Monday.
"I would've loved to see it without the scaffolding and all, see the grandness of it, but it serves the point anyway. I'm coming in from out-of-town, and I get to see it no matter what," one visitor said.
The work is expected to be finished before the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington this Aug. 28, according to the NPS. The memorial will remain open during the work, though access to some areas will be affected.
PREVIOUS STORIES:
A brush fire sparked on a hillside near State Route 125 Sunday, officials confirmed.
The blaze began around 2 p.m. off southbound SR-125 just south of Spring Street after officials say a car caught on fire on the side of the roadway.
Flames quickly raced up the hillside, scorching approximately five acres of brush in the process. Smoke and flames could be seen stemming off the freeway, near surrounding homes.
The fire singed the side of one home, but no structures were seriously damaged.
Crews honed in on the fire by ground and air, making drops from a helicopter.
At 2:45 p.m., CHP officials temporarily closed off southbound SR-125 at Lemon Avenue while firefighters worked to battle the blaze.
By 4:30 p.m., the firefighters had knocked down the fire and were mopping up hotspots.
A Chinese blog has leaked what is reportedly the packaging for the rumored budget iPhone.
The photo, posted on the blog WeiPhone, features what appears to be plastic packaging with the words "iPhone 5C" printed its side. The "C" could mean "color" for its multicolor offerings or "cheaper" to describe its lower price tag, according to PC Magazine.
The alleged new low-cost iPhone will look like a cross between the iPhone 5, iPod Touch and iPod Classic, according to Mashable. It will be made of plastic and targeted at developing markets like China in hopes of nabbing a share of the growing Android market.
Two more Washington landmarks have been vandalized with green paint, News4 Washington has learned.
Just three days after paint was found splattered at the Lincoln Memorial, a similar substance was discovered at the National Cathedral and on a statue memorializing Joseph Henry, the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
National Cathedral officials confirmed green paint was found on an organ inside the historic Bethlehem Chapel. The paint was still wet Monday.
The entire lower level of the cathedral is closed while police search the building.
Paint was also found on the front and back of the Joseph Henry statue's pedestal. The statue is located outside the Smithsonian castle, near the merry-go-round on the National Mall.
While the paint at the Lincoln was splattered on, the paint on the Henry statue resembles finger painting, reported News4's Mark Segraves.
It's unclear when the statue was vandalized. U.S. Park Police were alerted Monday morning to that incident.
U.S. Park Police are investigating whether the case at the Henry statue is linked to the incident at the Lincoln Memorial, Linda St. Thomas of the Smithsonian told News4.
"It is [the] Smithsonian's job to remove the paint -- from [the] granite base and bronze statue," she said. "We have to find a product that will not damage the protective coating."
St. Thomas said they should be able to remove the paint within a couple of days.
Stay with us for more.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE:
Dozens of children forced into prostitution were rescued in a three-day sweep of sex-trafficking rings, federal law enforcement authorities announced Monday.
The 105 victims, mostly girls, were rescued as the result of a coordinated effort that spanned 76 cities. The crackdown also netted 150 pimps, authorities said.
The largest roundups occurred in San Francisco (12 children and 17 pimps), Detroit (10 children and 18 pimps), Milwaukee (10 children), Denver (nine children and six pimps) and New Orleans (six children and six pimps).
A total of 21 victims were freed in California, and another five in both Texas and Connecticut, authorities said.
"This operation targeted venues where girls and adults are operated for commercial sex, including streets 'tracks,' truck stops, motels, casinos, internet sites and social media platforms and the like," Ron Hosko, assistant director of the FBI's criminal investigative division, said at a news conference.
The ages of the victims ranged from 13 to 17, he added.
One of them was a 14-year-old Sacramento, Calif. girl who was found in Reno, Nev. during an investigation of an online posting for prostitution, the Associated Press reported.
Another 14-year-old victim was saved in Memphis after undercover officers found her through the website backpage.com. She named two men and a woman who she said forced her into prostitution, according to the Commercial Appeal.
Among three children recovered in Oklahoma City was a girl who'd previous been rescued during a raid last year in the Pacific Northwest, an FBI agent told the AP.
The Detroit cases included several underrage girls held against their wills in various hotels, the Free Press reported.
In Chicago, the FBI said it worked with city and suburban police to rescue two teenagers. A pimp and 96 johns were also taken into custody.
The nationwide sweep, dubbed Operation Cross Country, was the largest in the FBI's decade-old Innocence Lost initiative to combat child prostitution, the agency said. Its main partner in that effort is the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Operation Cross Country's last major bust came in June 2012, when 79 children were rescued.
With the most recent crackdown, the initiative has pulled more than 2,700 children out of prostitution, the FBI said.
Typically, cases start locally, with initial arrests leading to deeper investigations, led by federal authorities, of criminal networks that transport children and adults across state lines.
Some perpetrators are serving life terms in prison.
"Operation Cross Country demonstrates just how many of America's children are being sold for sex every day, many on the internet," NCMEC CEO John Ryan said in a statement.
Wendy Jolley-Kabi, executive director of the Association of Missing and Exploited Children's Associations, said her group, and the families they represent, reacted to Monday's announcement with a combination of sadness and excitement—sadness for the large number of children involved, and excitement that the issue of child sex trafficking is getting so much attention.
Many sex-trafficking victims go missing from the foster or child-welfare system, where there often aren't parents or advocates clamoring on their behalf, she said. Some of these kids are never formally reported missing, reflecting gaps in state laws.
Jolley-Kabi said she expects that in the next few days several active missing-child cases will be closed as a result of the recent sweep. But far too many cases will remain unsolved.
The San Diego Zoo’s giant panda cub celebrated his first birthday Monday with a special cake made of ice, bamboo and fruit.
The cake was delivered to the panda exhibit just before 9 a.m. Monday and it didn't take long for Xiao Liwu and his mother Bai Yun to indulge in the special treat.
The cub's fans were able to watch the event through the San Diego Zoo's special live "Panda Cam."
Xiao Liwu was born on July 29, 2012 and joins three other giant pandas at the zoo including his mother, Gao Gao and Yun Zi.
His name means "Little Gift" in English. Click here for a pronounciation
An American Airlines plane blew two tires as it landed at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Monday afternoon, aviation officials said.
Flight 810, a Boeing 737-800, was coming in from Reno, Nevada, fire department spokesman Larry Langford told NBC Chicago.
The plane's two left main landing gear tires blew after landing at 12:30 p.m., the airline said.
The 137 passengers on board were deplaned on the taxiway via a portable staircase. Buses transported the passengers to the terminal.
No injuries were reported among the passengers or five crew members.
American Airlines personnel changed the tires and the aircraft was taken to a hangar, the airline said in a statement.
A violent crowd raged through Huntington Beach on Sunday night after a surfing competition, clashing with police, toppling portable toilets, brawling in the streets and vandalizing and looting at least one business, according to police and witnesses.
Read: Store Owner Saves $5,000 Bike | Caught on Video: Bike Shop Vandalism | Watch: Aftermath Aerial Video
The violence erupted among a crowd of thousands gathered for the Vans U.S. Open of Surfing, which includes surfing, skateboarding and BMX biking events, possibly after a fistfight in downtown Huntington Beach (map). City vehicles, newspaper racks and street signs also were damaged in the wave of violence on and near Main Street.
Police made eight arrests on suspicion of failure to disperse, according to a Huntington Beach Police Department statement.
People strapped bandanas across their faces and threw rocks and bottles at police officers. Police donned riot gear and fired back with pepper balls.
Aerial footage showed about 18 overturned portable toilets on the streets of downtown Huntington Beach. It was unclear exactly when the riots began, but witnesses began mentioning the riots in social media posts earlier than 8 p.m.
Witnesses said the violence stemmed from a fight and spread along the Main Street area.
"A lot of little fights broke out from there," said witness Doug Cavender.
A video posted to Facebook showed a group throwing a stop sign through a store window and making off with merchandise, including a bicycle. A stop sign post was sheared off and used to shatter the store window of the HB easyrider shop.
Burt Etheredge, an employee, described watching the crowd's smash-and-grab from the store's front window.
"We were all huddled inside the building and we had the lights off because all the people were up here mobbing around, and I was inside and I saw them tearing down the stop sign," he said. "As soon as that stop sign came down, I knew that stop sign was coming through the window. And sure enough, two seconds later, it did."
One of the people made off with a bicycle before others in the crowd stepped in and defended the store, Etheredge said. Video showed an employee inside the store window involved in a tug-o-war-style fight for a bike.
Boards covered the shop's window frame Monday morning.
By about 9 p.m., the commotion appeared to have ended and the streets were mostly cleared, except for a heavy police presence.
Police asked that anyone with information, photos or video of crimes related to the violence call the Huntington Beach Police Department Hotline at 714-375-5066.
More Southern California Stories:
Firefighters and lifeguards rushed to help one person injured when a car drove off a cliff near San Diego Monday.
The vehicle fell to the sand 50 feet below, landing along the water line in a cove near Sunset Cliffs Boulevard and Osprey Street around 5:20 a.m.
The sole occupant of the vehicle got out of the car, walked around and into the water at first and then eventually sat down on the beach under the cliff.
San Diego Fire-Rescue put two lifeguard swimmers into the water while they set up a rope system to lower a paramedic down to the beach.
Officials say the injured man was too combative to fly at first but the paramedic and lifeguards managed to stabilize him so he could be airlifted to UC San Diego Medical Center.
A witness who called 911 said the gate in the parking area near the incident had been snapped off and it was wide open.
Fire officials said they weren't sure if the man crashed his car through the gate. The vehicle appeared to have rear-end damage.
A man who robbed a credit union appeared not to notice he was being followed by a law enforcement helicopter as he led police to his house officials said Monday.
Chula Vista police said a tracking device hidden in money from a bank robbery led them to the suspect at an Eastlake home.
A man handed a note to a teller at the Navy Federal Credit Union on Saturn Boulevard warning the teller that he had an explosive device.
After the robbery, the suspect evaded police and ran into a home on Corte Calypso.
When the man came out of the home and walked back to a silver SUV parked outside the home, he was taken into custody.
The money was recovered from the SUV officials said.
A woman from inside the home was briefly detained officials said.
FBI investigators announced they have recovered 105 children from sex-trafficking after a 3-day undercover operation in 76 cities including San Diego.
In an early morning news conference in Washington, D.C., investigators joined the Department of Justice and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in announcing the results of Operation Cross Country VII.
Agents at the local levels targeted venues where girls and adults are used for commercial sex including streets, truck stops, motels, casinos, internet sites and social media sites.
The San Diego FBI has confirmed to NBC 7 that San Diego was among the cities involved in the operation with six children rescued and six pimps arrested.
Of those recovered, the youngest victim was 14 years old.
“That’s very, very disturbing when you’re talking about a 14 year-old being taken advantage, being prostituted out there by adult males,” said Special-Agent-in-Charge Darrell Foxworth.
On a national level, 150 pimps were arrested for victimizing minors ranging in age from 13 to 17 officials said.
Investigators conducted 28 searches that resulted in seizures of cash, drugs, vehicles and firearms.
Police departments in Chula Vista, Oceanside and San Diego were involved in the operation according to San Diego FBI agents.
