Officers Recover From Injuries After USC-UCLA Brawl
PASADENA (CBS) — Two police officers hurt while trying to break up a brawl between USC and UCLA fans in a Rose Bowl parking lot are back home.
The brawl broke out Saturday night as fans waited for the start of the annual game between the crosstown rivals. Two men were stabbed, one repeatedly in the back and the other in the cheek, but both were taken by ambulance to Huntington Memorial Hospital, where police say they are in stable condition.
Three men were arrested at the end of the melee in a grassy part of neighboring Brookside Golf Course that the stadium uses for event parking.
Arturo Cisneros, 44, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, police said. Steven Radu, 27, and Joshua Elder, 23, were arrested for investigation of assault on a police officer. They were being held in Pasadena City Jail.
USC later beat the Bruins for the 11th time in 12 games, 28-14.
Friends and family of the stabbing victims said the fight broke out when Cal State Fullerton student Vimal Patel, 24, and another man who were part of a group of UCLA fans were tossing a football that accidentally hit a black Mercedes-Benz belonging to members of a nearby group.
Three men from that group confronted Patel, which ended with his being stabbed in the back, his friend Martin Keeley told the Los Angeles Times.
Keeley said he tried to defend his friend as his wife called 911, and many more people followed.
They included Joshua Dirling, 27, who was stabbed in the cheek, according to his brother.
"We were in the middle of it and my brother got popped in the face," Matthew Dirling told the Times. "We were having a good time and this broke out."
USC fan Michael Lane of Los Angeles said he was tailgating with friends in the lot when the melee broke out around him.
"People from USC and UCLA were fighting against each other," Lane said. "It was bottles being thrown and different things happened ... I saw a person come out with a bloody face."
Qualls said that the last time the annual rivalry game was held at the Rose Bowl in 2008, there were about 50 arrests, but he didn't think any of them were for assault.
Saturday's USC victory -- the Trojans' fourth straight -- in the 80th meeting between the teams was for nothing but civic pride, with the Bruins failing to qualify for a bowl game and USC banned from the postseason by NCAA sanctions.
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