What should have been a day of joy and celebration turned into pandemonium Thursday evening as a wild brawl broke out on the stage of a Los Angeles graduation ceremony.
The chaos unfolded at Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles during a graduation ceremony for the over 100 L.A. County high school graduates, which included 29 students who were currently detained youth on probation.
At the end of the ceremony, a person suddenly leaped over a second-story balcony and assaulted one of the teen graduates, authorities said, according to KTLA-TV.
"I had just walked the stage when suddenly, kids from an alternative education school and probation started fighting," said graduate Brianna Valdez in an interview with KTTV-TV.
"Girls were fighting, guys were fighting," she added. "I was really scared."
What was a bad situation quickly became far worse when someone from outside the concert hall fired a gun.
"We were coming out of the ceremony, and there was a car on the other side. We just saw shooting and saw the smoke and everything, and everybody just got down on the ground," said Raul Valdez.
"We could see that someone was bleeding," said Javonte Jamison, another witness. "He looked like he just got done fighting, and I could see the car pulling up that they were about to do something for sure. You could see the gun smoke, gun shells hitting the floor, and then they kind of peeled off."
No one was injured by the gunfire and two people were taken into custody in the parking lot.
Los Angles
— Abhay (@AstuteGaba) June 14, 2024
Breaking - Fights during graduation at Disney Concert Hall in downtown LA
Jun 13, 2024
A series of fights broke out during a graduation ceremony at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The violence extended to outside of the iconic downtown LA venue as a shooting was… pic.twitter.com/VQAdkfLVX3
