CHICAGO — Gonzalo Sandoval, 23, traveled from the Southwest suburbs to Montrose Beach for what he heard was a party at the beach.
"People were saying, 'beach party — let's go,' and a bunch of local bands started to show up and promote themselves," Sandoval said. "It was almost a Project X type of thing. The power of the Internet is crazy."
He said the improptu concert seemed moderately under control with hundreds of young people from different areas of the city on the beach and not a single fight.
But that all changed once officers showed up to shut the party down, Sandoval said.
"It was pretty much a riot after [that]. There was too many drunk people around," he said.
Two Chicago Police officers were injured when they tried to break up the large crowd that had gathered at Montrose Beach in Uptown.
At 7:37 p.m. Sunday, police were called to the 4400 block of North Simmonds Drive for a disturbance and discovered the large crowd.
One of the officers who responded was hit with a bottle hurled from the crowd. He was treated on the scene for his injuries, said Officer Hector Alfaro, a Chicago Police Department spokesman.
Later, it was discovered that another officer was injured in the scuffle. His injuries were not life threatening, Alfaro said.
Two men — 23-year-old Efrain Saucedo and 19-year-old Emmanuel Lopez, both of Aurora — were seen throwing the bottles at the officers, police said. They were each charged with felony aggravated battery to a police officer and are due in bond court Tuesday.
Additionally, a 19-year-old Summit man and a 22-year-old Aurora man were charged with two misdemeanors: aggravated assault to a police officer and mob action.
A 17-year-old Chicago boy also was charged with misdemeanor mob action and felony criminal damage to property.
According to the Tribune, four officers were injured, and a squad car was damaged after rocks, cans and bottles were thrown as officers tried to break up a fight in the crowd. Officers were called to the beach, and a call for more officers brought police from as far away as O'Hare and Evanston to the beach.
Judi Pacini, 68, of Edgewater was headed to Montrose Beach after 7 p.m. Sunday, but she headed farther south toward the golf course when she saw how big the crowd at the beach was.
"Every inch of parking was taken up — even the pay lots were full," Pacini said. "A lot of people and congestion just means don't go. You could feel the heat of unsettledness with all the commotion of traffic. There was just too many people."
When she drove by the beach a few hours later she saw a sea of flashing lights and police officers. The commotion kept her from the beach Sunday night, but it wouldn't hours later, when she would return with her dogs Monday morning.
"I hesistated this morning, but it's like if you're going to hide, you can't hide from what life is, and it's not kind sometimes," Pacini said. "Weekends I stay away, but I'm not going to stay away. Where else can you get 26 miles of beach and park area?"
Jorge Gonzales, 46, has lived in Uptown for the last 10 years, and he said crime in general has decreased in the neighborhood over the decade. And though crime has picked up a little in the area recently, he said he refuses to keep his dogs from their favorite place to play.
"It's the same everywhere. I feel in Chicago and living in Uptown, I'm used to it. My neighborhood's a little bit not OK, but I heard it used to be a lot less OK," Gonzales said.
"You don't hear as much about shootings as you did before. There used to be kids on every corner. Now, there's more police patrolling," he said.
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