Danny Trejo said he was targeted when he was hit with a water balloon during a Fourth of July parade in Los Angeles, leading to a messy fight involving the iconic actor.
The “Machete” star was riding in the passenger seat of a baby blue convertible with his friend Mario Castillo when a water balloon was thrown at them while driving through the Sunland-Tujunga neighborhood, the actor said. told TMZ.
Trejo said he panicked when he heard someone yelling “acid” in the balloon.
“I’m very upset, I’m very upset that the way I behaved, grown men have to throw water balloons to enjoy a day,” Trejo told the outlet. “I don’t think I would have got out of the car if someone hadn’t shouted ‘It’s acid’. That’s when I panicked,” he added.
Trejo got out of the car to confront a group on the sidewalk and began fighting with a man in a black sleeveless shirt.
As the two grappled with each other, the suspect threw a punch at Trejo, causing the actor to fall backwards onto the street, video obtained. KTTV was seized.
Trejo and Castillo said they felt isolated because they were Mexican, especially since no one else was hit with water balloons during the march.
“It was targeted because there was no one else in front of us or behind us with balloons,” Castillo said. “You know it was on our lowrider.”
“Come on, you’ve got a classic lowrider in the parade, and that’s the last thing you want to get in the water or any of that,” he added.
Nearly a dozen people surrounded the classic car to welcome the legendary actor as a marcher reportedly threw a water balloon.
“There were eight, nine, ten people around this car when they blew up that balloon, so nobody was worried that they weren’t going to hit anybody else,” he explained.
Trejo told TMZ he only reacted because someone grabbed him first.
As stated therein Los Angeles TimesThe confrontation turned violent when a second water balloon was thrown at Trejo’s head.
“Everybody was holding him back,” Arnie Abramian captured parts of the fight, told the press. “There were a lot of people between him and those who threw the water balloon. He was just as upset. He yelled, screamed, went crazy and tried to get to the person who threw the water balloon.
Others who attended the Fourth of July celebration accused Trejo of fighting, saying he should have been in his car.
“[Trejo] He pushed the women out of the way to get to those men,” Sunland-Tujunga resident James Spishak told The Times. “There were kids there. It could have gotten really ugly. If he had been in the car, it never would have happened.
“I love Danny Trejo, I think he’s a good guy, but he needs to know when to say ‘no,'” Spishak said, adding that the actor slapped him when he tried to break up the fight.
It took several marchers to break up the brawl, and scenes of the aftermath saw Trejo held back from Castillo’s eye.
A friend of the actor said he suffered a bruised right eye and red swollen hands after people stepped on him while they were holding him.
Trejo didn’t care too much about the incident, as he laughed the fight off awkwardly.
“They couldn’t hurt me, it was sad, I’d be embarrassed if I hit an 80-year-old man who’s still talking and laughing,” Trejo said.
