Police confront Candlestick sideshow

Two police officers were confronted by at least 30 people and one was nearly run over by a car last week during a sideshow in San Francisco’s Candlestick Point, police said this morning.

On July 1, around 7 p.m., officers responded to the 600 block of Jamestown Avenue, near where the now-demolished Candlestick Park was formerly located, according to police.

Upon arrival, officers found multiple vehicles in the area, with at least one doing donuts, police said.

When the officers tried to pull over the vehicle involved in the illegal activity, several suspects surrounded the officers’ car and tried to prevent them from conducting the traffic stop, according to police.

The officers exited their patrol car and one of the two officers began to chase after a suspect.

The officer then looked back and saw three suspects had surrounded his partner. When the officer returned to assist his partner, he saw the three suspects were threatening to physically assault the lone officer, police said.

One of the suspects then approached the officer with clenched fists, as if he was going to strike him. The officer then intervened and physically attempted to subdue the suspect.

Both officers fought for their safety, but were outnumbered by a group of at least 30 people. People in the group were allegedly assisting the suspect who tried to assault the officer, according to police.

The suspect then got into a vehicle and attempted to leave the scene, along with the other sideshow participants, police said.

As the vehicles were leaving, one of the drivers deliberately drove at one of the officers, swerving several times in an attempt to strike him as he tried to move out of the way, according to police.

The officer was able to leap out of the way as the suspect vehicle approached the exit, police said.

The two officers were not injured during the incident, according to police Capt. Raj Vaswani.

No arrests have been made as of this afternoon, however police are continuing to investigate the incident, Vaswani said.

Sideshows are not uncommon in the area. Vaswani said his department often receives calls from concerned neighbors, who are intimidated by crowds that gather in the area to do donuts.

In the past, officers have arrested several people and have even recovered weapons as a result of sideshow investigations in the area, according to Vaswani.

“We understand people are enthusiastic about cars, but this kind of activity itself is reckless,” Vaswani said. “There are ways to get together and engage in gatherings without participating in illegal activity.”