Police Hit With Rocks After Closing Club

LYNN, Mass. —  Hundreds of people angered by the closing of a crowded Latino social club pelted police with rocks and bottles early Saturday during a window-smashing rampage that took three hours to quell.

Police asked owners of the members-only Quisquellano Lounge to clear out an estimated 250 patrons about midnight after an officer saw a window break, Lt. Joseph Rowe said.

“It was unsafe and overcrowded,” Rowe said, adding there was no official occupancy limit. “After several requests were made both in English and in Spanish directing everyone to leave the area, people refused to leave . . . and a kind of mob psychology took over.”

Reinforcements were called in to help control the crowd that swelled to about 500 and flooded the streets surrounding the Boston suburb’s central square.

“They eventually blocked the entire street. When the first arrest was made, the crowd turned on the officers and pelted them with bottles and stones,” he said, adding that fights broke out in alleys and that store windows were smashed.

Fifteen people were arrested, most for investigation of disorderly conduct or failure to disperse. All face arraignment Tuesday.

Rowe said no injuries were reported and the disturbance stopped short of becoming a riot because police “showed restraint . . . (and) did not attack the crowd.”

Manuel Ortiz, secretary at the club where owners have applied for a nightclub license, said it has no liquor license and serves only soft drinks.

“We’ve never had any trouble here in 15 years,” he said in a telephone interview from the club.

Rowe said he did not know whether alcohol was being served at the lounge, but “certainly people were under the influence.”