Vigil Turns Violent When Skateboarders Clash With Police

COSTA MESA (CBSLA.com) — When police showed up at a memorial for a skateboarder in Costa Mesa Sunday night, tempers flared.

"I don't think we were doing anything that needed that much enforcement," Ryan Balkey said.

Police say skateboarders sprayed graffiti in a public skate park, refused to leave then started banging their boards against the pavement.

Skateboarders say they were holding a peaceful memorial for their friend, 20-year-old David Moya, a local skateboard shaper who died in his home early Sunday morning. The man's cause of death was not released.

"He had so much plans in his life. He had a daughter on the way, too," Travis Clark said.

When Josh Rivera shot cell phone video instead of leaving, he says a half-dozen officers held him down, then used a taser on him.

"I should not have been tased at all," Rivera said. "Cops used way, way too much force for one person, there were six or seven of them on top of me."

About 50 officers from nearby agencies were called in when they say the skateboarders were being combative. Three were arrested.

"Skaters may have gotten out of hand with the graffiti and everything else but police should be able to handle a bunch of unarmed skateboarders a little bit better than that," Rivera said.