The vile street takeovers afflicting Los Angeles are getting more and more violent, police say, and they expect things will only get worse heading into the summer.
Los Angeles cops swarmed more than 90 street takeovers already far in 2026, making at least 79 arrests, impounding 114 race cars, grabbing four stolen vehicles and seizing four firearms. At least five people were shot at LA county street takeovers this past weekend alone.
Cops say the illegal gatherings are getting more and more bloody — and with warmer weather coming, things will only get worse.
“There’s robberies, rapes, shootings, murders, stabbings,” said Sgt. Jesse Garcia, leader of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Street Racing Task Force.
“It’s only increased and gotten more violent, more boisterous and just more brazen,” he added.
Four people were shot early Sunday morning at a massive takeover in Rosemead, where Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of a takeover at the intersection of Del Mar and Garvey avenues.
The deputies arrived too late to stop the shooting of the victims, including two teenagers.
Twenty-four hours later, deputies responded to a report of another street takeover at Compton and Gage Avenues in the Florence-Firestone area of South-Central LA.
Again, the deputies arrived too late to stop the shooting of a takeover participant who was taken to the hospital in unknown condition.
Last year the LAPD’s task force tackled 678 takeovers and made 292 associated arrests, including 24 felony collars. Cops impounded 483 race cars and recovered 103 stolen vehicles at the takeovers, seizing 18 firearms along the way.
Garcia said the illegal gatherings gain momentum in the summer months when the weather is warm and dry, and youths are out of school. “It’s heating up now,” he said.
Many takeover participants are members of street gangs, while others belong to car clubs that have ventured into criminal enterprise, explained Garcia.
“It’s a lot of car theft rings, narcotics, human trafficking and gun running,” Garcia said. “Some of the clubs have a hierarchy identical to motorcycle gangs, with dues paying members different chapters in different states.”
Many of the clubs participating in LA takeovers are based along the Interstate 10 freeway in the corridor running from Los Angeles to New Orleans, Garcia said. Each weekend, throngs of hoodlums come to LA for takeovers from all over California and beyond, he added.
The chaotic events have increased in all parts of LA, said Garcia, and especially downtown, where Mayor Karen Bass last month ordered more patrols after a deranged takeover mob stormed the luxury Circa LA Apartments across the street from the LA Convention Center.
“The brazenness is that when law enforcement arrives, these groups won’t clear out,” added Garcia. “It’s not just kids having fun.”
Cops rush to smash the takeovers in unmarked squad cars, with police lights mounted inside their cabs to preserve an element of surprise. LAPD helicopters are summoned to the crackdowns to identify suspects and follow those who flee.
Cops are working to arrest and jail ringleaders like Erick Romero Quintana, 22, who this month began his trial at LA Superior Court for 16 counts of conspiracy to commit reckless driving, for takeovers he allegedly organized in LA county, including one gathering where a 24-year-old woman was struck by a car and killed.
Prosecutors say Quintana organized takeovers with an Instagram account that had more than 60,000 followers. If convicted, he faces up to 13 years in prison.
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