Parking structure takeover busted by police

By Kim Powell

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    TEMPE, Arizona (KPHO) — Tempe police put an end to a large gathering taking place at a parking structure on Saturday night that involved about 500 vehicles and 1,000 people. An officer saw the gathering while patrolling where Loops 101 and 202 meet.

“This is nothing new to the valley so he automatically recognizes this as a car gathering and potential street racing-type activity,” said Detective Natalie Barela with the Tempe Police Department. “The officer was able to park his patrol vehicle to block some of the traffic coming in and out. At that time he started observing vehicles revving their engines, starting to spin out.”

More officers arrived, and they were able to use a drone to get an aerial look at the situation.

“It just gives us an aerial view of what we’re dealing with, to identify resources we may need, obviously Tempe Fire and Medical were called in. It was a large number of people, creates a fire hazard, and it’s just another resource to tell us what we needed,” said Barela. “Having that aerial view really allows officers to identify exit points, entrance points, and the quantity of the number of cars we had there.”

Barela said the event organizer was cooperative with the police and admitted to being there without permission or permits. Gatherings, or “takeovers,” like this are becoming more common across the valley, and they often go hand-in-hand with street racing. Phoenix Police started a task force to combat this sort of activity and they assisted Tempe Police on Saturday night.

Barela says they want the organizers of these events to understand the dangers behind them. “When you look at high rate of speed, donuts, you can easily lose control of that vehicle. You lose control of that vehicle and someone’s filming, standing outside the vehicle filming with their cell phone, all of a sudden you can have a fatal collision,” said Barela.

The organizer was issued a criminal citation. Tempe Police say several others were warned for trespassing. A food vendor was also given a warning for not having proper permits.

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