Santa Rosa sideshows involved drivers from Sacramento area, police say

A wave of illegal road sideshows across Santa Rosa Friday and Saturday nights involved large groups that came from the greater Sacramento area and splintered into smaller parties across the city, police said Monday.

The organized effort followed a trend of participants going from city to city across the Bay Area and escalated concerns in Santa Rosa, where officials have been trying to prevent the illegal gatherings involving drivers who perform stunts and spinouts in the middle of streets.

The incidents are traffic hazards that pose a danger to pedestrians and other drivers, according to many residents, who’ve urged police take a stronger stand against them. Authorities say the gatherings are often random and too large to curb without potential use of force.

Santa Rosa police Sgt. Josh Ludtke said participants in Bay Area sideshows sometime “push back” against communities where officials try to prevent gatherings and that may be one reason Santa Rosa became ground zero over the weekend.

"Their goal is to overwhelm law enforcement resources so they can freely inflict their will and do what they want to do,“ he said.

The first series of sideshows began around 10 p.m. Friday, when about 200 vehicles gathered at Corby and Baker avenues before participants split up and created three or four smaller sideshows across Santa Rosa.

Larkfield resident Ross McClure, 60, was driving a bus of cheerleaders from Walnut Creek to Windsor at about 11:45 p.m. Friday when they were surrounded by over 50 vehicles that took up two lanes and weaved in and out of traffic on Highway 101.

They were led by a Dodge Charger occupied by young adults “hanging out the windows,” he said.

“My concern was that they were going to start spinning donuts on the road and put everyone in danger,” McClure said.

Ludtke said there were two police pursuits that reached 100 mph on Highway 101 before being terminated by authorities. At least eight people were cited for speed and equipment violations and at least three vehicles were towed away Friday.

“Far and away, the stops we made indicate these vehicles were from out of town,” Ludtke said.

Around 9:30 p.m. Saturday, authorities learned a caravan of 100 to 150 vehicles was heading north on Highway 101 in Petaluma and they also stopped at Corby and Baker before spreading out to four or five locations.

“Quite a few vehicles were left on the freeway on/off ramp at Baker Avenue and towed for blocking the roadway,” CHP Officer David deRutte said.

Ludtke said police assisted with crowd control after bottles and rocks were thrown at the CHP officers.

Sonoma County sheriff’s deputies tried to quell a gathering with about 30 vehicles at Santa Rosa and East Robles avenues when a Santa Rosa man allegedly led them on a pursuit around 1 a.m. Sunday.

Sergio Avalos, 20, is accused of driving through the intersection “in the wrong lane against a red light,” according to the Sheriff’s Office.

A deputy chased the suspect on southbound Santa Rosa Avenue and speeds reached 80 mph.

Avalos “repeatedly” drove in the wrong lane and ran a second red light before stopping at an unspecified Highway 101 on-ramp, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

He was arrested on suspicion of evading a peace officer and booked into the Sonoma County Jail.

Although the weekend sideshows ended with arrests and citations, law enforcement faced renewed criticism from residents who said they did not respond in a timely manner to curb the incidents.

Santa Rosa City Councilman Eddie Alvarez said he advised a resident to call police after a sideshow developed Saturday night at West College Avenue and Putney Drive.

“I’m sad to say they felt their concerns were not addressed properly to their satisfaction,” Alvarez said.

Roseland resident Duke Evans, 72, told The Press Democrat he had similar sentiments. He works about 500 feet from Corby Avenue and heard screeching and explosions, but no police sirens Saturday night.

“That person needs to go to jail. The police are not doing anything about it,” Evans said.

Police countered that they responded to multiple scenes but that sideshows require a cautious approach due to the sheer number of participants and vehicles involved and other unknowns, including the presence of firearms, that can put officers at risk.

Furthermore, officers are also often busy on other nighttime calls, such as the fatal head-on collision on Corporate Center Parkway Friday night.

Santa Rosa police Sgt. Chris Mahurin said five department dispatchers fielded 300 calls about sideshows each night and the volume hindered attempts to address each caller.

Santa Rosa leaders have been looking for solutions to sideshows amid a series of public meetings and a community survey last month about the issue.

To tame reckless driving, raised ceramic dots called Bott’s dots were placed in one of the most popular intersections for sideshows, at Sebastopol and West avenues in Roseland.

Community leaders also floated the idea of legally organized sideshows in a controlled setting. Alvarez supports the proposal, but said the survey showed residents weren’t on board.

“It showed the community didn’t even want to entertain the conversation of a sideshow,” he said. “They want them gone and, hopefully, simply coming down with an iron fist will solve the issue.”

Magali Telles, Santa Rosa’s community engagement director, added the survey asked if sideshows make people feel unsafe and the answer was “overwhelmingly” yes.

“A lot of people feel — someone used the word ‘terrified,’“ she said.

You can reach Staff Writer Colin Atagi at colin.atagi@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @colin_atagi. You can reach Staff Writer Mya Constantino at mya.constantino@pressdemocrat.com.