Two San Francisco residents were arrested Saturday after allegedly participating in a sideshow in an unincorporated area by Redwood City.
In a statement Sunday, a San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said deputies responded around 3:30 p.m. to reports of the sideshow at Woodside Road and Alameda de las Pulgas. There, deputies found hundreds of spectators watching, with some throwing objects at passing vehicles.
As Redwood City police and California Highway Patrol officers also arrived, most vehicles and spectators fled, including two men leaving on foot who ran away when deputies tried to speak with them.
Deputies pursued them two blocks away to a gas station where one man, Waldemar A. Pop, 23, tried to hide inside a vehicle at the pumps.
Pop and Jesus Gress-Ramirez, 22, both of San Francisco, were arrested on suspicion of resisting, delaying or obstructing an officer, and booked into Maguire county jail in Redwood City.
Sideshows are illegal and extremely dangerous, the sheriff’s office said, adding it has zero tolerance for such activities. Authorities are working to identify others involved in Saturday’s event.
Anyone with information, including sideshow witnesses, may email Sgt. Doug Richardson at drichardson@smcgov.org, call 650-363-4911 or anonymously submit tips at 800-547-2700.
On Sunday, San Jose police’s acting Chief Paul Joseph posted to X about several sideshow incidents Saturday evening, including one on the city’s west side where a vehicle injured a spectator.
Joseph said a reserve officer was flagged down about the spectator, but said other spectators overran the officer’s patrol vehicle, damaging it and leaving the officer with minor injuries.
“This conduct is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our city,” Joseph said, adding that detectives and crime analysts would work to identify people involved. “To see one of our officers attacked by an out of control mob while in the process of trying to help a seriously injured person is truly deplorable!”
Police did not identify a location, but Yay Area News’ X account posted a video Sunday showing several people surrounding an occupied patrol vehicle in northbound lanes of South Winchester Boulevard north of Olin Avenue, just outside the city’s Santana Row shopping mall. In the video, several people climb onto the vehicle’s hood before stomping its windshield.