Image 1 of 8 ▼ A white semi-trailer truck and an AC Transit bus were set on fire Sunday night after people in a crowd watching a "sideshow" in Oakland's Fruitvale district stripped the trailer of its contents -- including paper products - and scattered them about the area before the truck burned, according to videos posted on social media. An AC Transit bus also was affected. The videos were posted at approximately 8:45 p.m. Sunday of a sideshow at the intersection of International Boulevard and 42nd Avenue. The series of videos show people looting the truck trailer, and then apparently setting the truck on fire. Oakland police said officers responded to the scene, which broke up about 10 p.m. There were no reports of injuries, and no arrests reported, police said. Advertisement This same intersection was the scene of a sideshow on April 7 just before a Warriors game.<doc-sep>OAKLAND (CBS SF) — An unruly crowd at an Oakland sideshow erupted in violence Sunday night, forcing a big rig driver out of his cab at gunpoint before looting the truck’s trailer and setting it ablaze, authorities said. The Oakland police said they were overwhelmed by the illegal sideshow activity across the city. “The Oakland Police Department anticipated illegal sideshow activity in the City of Oakland and increased staffing in response,” the department said in a release. “By mid-evening, the number of sideshow participants increased to approximately 1,000 spectators and vehicles that were spread out in various locations of the city. This stretched the Department’s resources beyond its capacity.” Police spokeswoman Johnna Watson said officers were surprised by how many sideshows broke out. “What we didn’t expect is that sideshow (activity) would reach the level that it did,” she told reporters. “Not only the level in activity which really dipped into quite a bit of violence, but also the numbers.” The crowd at a sideshow at 42nd Avenue and International Boulevard reeled out of control around 8:30 p.m. this is prolly the craziest shit ever they stripped the truck at the sideshow pic.twitter.com/O7szbZLIUb — threezus (@idk510) April 15, 2019 “Members of the sideshow crowd surrounded a commercial transport truck and an AC Transit bus,” the police said in a release. “The driver of the commercial transport truck was removed at gunpoint and the truck was set on fire (he sustained no injuries).” Watson called the incident a carjacking. “He was carjacked and once he was removed from the vehicle, his truck was set on fire,” she said. “Inside the truck were paper goods sush as plates, napkins, things like that.” Then the crowd turned their attention to an AC Transit bus. “The AC Transit bus’s windows were broken out and the bus was set on fire (no injuries reported),” police said. “As officers attempted to clear the area, so that the Oakland Fire Department could extinguish the fire, gunshots were heard from inside the crowd, which delayed response.” Police were able to gain an upper hand and sideshow activity city wide concluded by 10 p.m. Alameda County sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly said a female deputy who responded to what he described as “the chaotic scene” at 42nd Avenue and International Boulevard suffered “a very significant injury to her knee” that will require surgery and a long rehabilitation process. Kelly said the crowd of about 1,000 people “was almost impossible to control” because “there were not enough cops on duty in the East Bay” to contain it. Kelly said it was “lucky” no one was killed and no one except the sheriff’s deputy was seriously injured. Oakland police said officers issued nearly 200 citations, numerous vehicles were towed and several firearms were recovered. Oakland police said they will be joined by officers from neighboring jurisdictions this coming weekend in an effort to stem the surge in violence and illegal sideshow activity. “Violent, disruptive, illegal behavior will not be tolerated in Oakland,” police said. “Our investigators will be working to identify those responsible for committing crimes and participating in illegal sideshow activity.” © Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Bay City News Service contributed to this report.<doc-sep>A sideshow in East Oakland devolved into violence and destruction over the weekend when armed spectators commandeered a semi truck, looted it, set it and an AC Transit bus ablaze and hurled bottles and rocks at responding law enforcement officers, injuring one, officials said Monday. Investigators spent the day searching for evidence at 42nd Avenue and International Boulevard, where daybreak revealed the sweeping aftermath of Sunday night’s destructive melee: toilet paper hanging from traffic lights and debris scattered in every direction. The truck and bus were gutted by fire. Police vowed to confront future out-of-control gatherings while a city lawmaker blasted the Police Department response as “lax” after outnumbered officers failed to manage the trouble. “Violent, disruptive, illegal behavior will not be tolerated in the City of Oakland,” Oakland police wrote in a statement. “Our investigators will be working to identify those responsible for committing crimes and participating in illegal sideshow activity.” City officials this weekend will bring in “a large of contingency of law enforcement” to focus only on sideshows with “air support” and officers on the ground to issue citations, make arrests, and tow vehicles, police said. The latest trouble began in the mid-evening as a growing crowd circled around drivers spinning doughnuts and performing other stunts in the Fruitvale District intersection, police said. Around 8:30 p.m. — as the crowd numbered close to 1,000 — several people surrounded a big-rig and bus in the intersection, punched out windows, and set both vehicles ablaze, officials said. Someone ordered the truck driver out at gunpoint as others looted the trailer in a scene that played out on social media. The truck driver escaped injury before his rig went up in flames. Responding law enforcement officials were bombarded by debris as they attempted to quell the horde, officials said. Oakland police said they issued nearly 200 citations, towed a number of vehicles and recovered several firearms by the end of the night. A responding Alameda County Sheriff’s deputy sustained a serious knee injury and was taken to a hospital where she was in stable condition, said Ray Kelly, a sheriff’s spokesman. “I know we had rocks and bottles and fireworks launched at us. There were also reports of gunfire as well,” he said. Oakland Councilman Noel Gallo, whose district includes the site of Sunday’s sideshow, criticized the unruly participants but also blamed the response by law enforcement. Police and sheriff deputies, he said, were too “lax” by “not jumping into the scene right away” to issue citations and make arrests. He did note that officers were being bombarded with rocks and bottles as occasional gunfire erupted. While sideshows have long been an element of East Bay culture referenced in hip-hop music and shared on social media, some lawmakers like Gallo said the impromptu gatherings have gone too far. He said it’s only a matter of time before more people are severely injured or killed by a car spinning doughnuts or performing other stunts. He called on the city to add medians and planters to large intersections like 42nd and International to deter future reckless behavior. “The way it is right now, we’re just waiting for a car in a sideshow to get out of control and run over 20 people watching the show,” Gallo said. “We haven’t been as forceful as we could.” The Oakland City Council is expected to vote Tuesday on a resolution to support state legislation, AB410, to clearly define penalties for participating in a sideshow. If the legislation passes, the first conviction for participating in a sideshow would be a misdemeanor, while subsequent convictions could be tried as misdemeanors or felonies. The $750,000 AC Transit bus and the semi truck that were set on fire were a complete loss, officials said. While an extreme case, Sunday night’s fray was far from the first such incident in the East Bay. Law enforcement agencies respond to dozens of sideshows every year, Kelly said. In September, Oakland police towed at least 85 cars and arrested two people after a weekend of sideshows. The automotive stunt shows often draw large crowds to vacant parking lots or intersections. Many participants are not Oakland natives, authorities said, and some people come from as far away as Southern California to participate. “They don’t just target Oakland,” Kelly said. “Oakland seems to get the brunt of the issues, but we’ve seen them from San Jose, all up along the (Interstate) 880 corridor. They’ll hit any city in between.” Gwendolyn Wu and Evan Sernoffsky are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @gwendolynawu @EvanSernoffsky<doc-sep>OAKLAND — A semi-truck burned at an intersection after some viewers of a sideshow at an East Oakland intersection stripped paper products inside across an intersection Sunday. Social media posts, some of which contained raw and possibly offensive language, geo-located at 42nd Avenue and International Boulevard appear to show boxes of toilet paper and other paper products being tossed into the air by several people before, at some point, the truck itself catches fire. Police were responding to the area to re-direct traffic away from the area and allow firefighters to extinguish flames and protect an evacuated AC Transit bus parked close by the truck. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Check back for updates. this is prolly the craziest shit ever they stripped the truck at the sideshow pic.twitter.com/O7szbZLIUb — threezus (@idk510) April 15, 2019 Contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.<doc-sep>
A rowdy sideshow in East Oakland Sunday night ended in a looted big-rig truck and an AC Transit bus on fire. Videos of the illegal automotive stunt show at the intersection of International Boulevard and 42nd Avenue started appearing on social media around 8:45 p.m. The videos show people raiding a truck stocked with paper products and throwing rolls of toilet paper into the air. Other footage and photos show the truck and a public bus engulfed in flames. Oakland Police responded to the incident and say the crowd began to break up by about 10 p.m. There were no reports of injuries and no arrests, police said. HIT AND RUN: Mother, 6-year-old son killed in Oakland hit-and-run The California Highway Patrol's Golden Gate Division blocked freeway onramps to prevent the activity from moving onto the interstate. "We had air operations overhead," John Fransen, an officer with CHP Golden Gate Division, said. "We deterred them from coming up on the freeway." Sideshows are illegal gatherings where drivers take over parking lots, streets, entire intersections and even stretches of busy highways to perform stunts with their cars. Crowds often gather along the sidelines to watch. They can result in general lawlessness and have been a reoccurring problem in Oakland since the 1980s. The site of Sunday night's sideshow saw a similar incident as recently as April 7. Two officers were also injured in a late-night sideshow in September that shut down multiple roadways across East Oakland. MORE NEWS: Naked man shot after stabbing at California restaurant "I think this has unfortunately been an ongoing issue for the Bay Area for many years," Fransen said. "It's this counterculture thing that goes on where you have these underground car clubs who want to use the public streets to do stunt driving. We have pedestrians getting hurt. Drivers getting hurt. It's a dangerous situation. There are better places to do this, such as Sonoma Raceway." Fransen says the public can help by calling 911 anytime they see sideshow activity. In January, California Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian introduced a bill to toughen penalties for illegal sideshows. Bay City News contributed to this story.