Danny Trejo claimed he was targeted when he was struck with a water balloon during a Fourth of July parade in Los Angeles, which led to a chaotic brawl involving the iconic actor.
The “Machete” star was riding in the passenger seat in a baby blue convertible alongside his buddy Mario Castillo, driving through the Sunland-Tujunga neighborhood when a water balloon was thrown at them, the actor told TMZ.
Trejo said he panicked when he seemingly heard somebody yell that the balloon contained “acid.”
“I’m so sad, by the way I behaved, so sad that grown men have to throw water balloons to enjoy a day,” Trejo told the outlet. “I don’t think I would’ve gotten out of the car if someone hadn’t yelled ‘it’s acid.’ That’s when I panicked,” he added.
Trejo hopped out of the car to confront a group of people on the sidewalk and began fighting with one man who wore a black sleeveless shirt.
The alleged suspect threw a punch at Trejo as the two grabbed at each other, resulting in the actor falling backward onto the street, video obtained by KTTV captured.
Trejo and Castillo claimed they were singled out because they are Mexican, especially since no one else was struck with water balloons during the parade.
“It was targeted, because there was no one else being hit by balloons in front of us or behind us,” Castillo said. “You know it was just at our lowrider.”
Nearly a dozen people had surrounded the classic car to greet the legendary actor when a paradegoer allegedly threw a water balloon.
“Come on, you got a classic lowrider in a parade, that is the last thing you want getting water, or anything in it,” he added.
“There were like eight, nine, ten people around this car when they threw that balloon, so somebody wasn’t worried that they weren’t gonna hit anybody else,” he explained.
Trejo told TMZ he only reacted because someone grabbed him first.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the confrontation turned violent when a second water balloon was thrown at Trejo’s head.
“Everybody was holding him back,” Arnie Abramyan, who captured parts of the fight, told the newspaper. “There were a lot of people between him and the people who threw the water balloon. He was just upset. He was yelling, screaming, mad and was trying to get to the guy who threw the water balloon.”
Others attending the Fourth of July celebration blamed Trejo for the brawl, saying he should’ve remained in his car.
“[Trejo] pushed women out of the way to get to those guys,” Sunland-Tujunga resident James Spishak told The Times. “There were kids there. It could’ve gotten really ugly. It would’ve never happened if he stayed in the car.”
“I love Danny Trejo, I think he’s a cool dude, but he needs to know when to say ‘no,’” Spishak said, claiming the actor slapped him as he tried to break up the fight.
It took several paradegoers to separate the brawl, and footage from the aftermath saw Castillo bleeding from his eye as Trejo was being held back.
The actor’s friend said he suffered a bruised right eye and red swollen arms after people stomped on them as they were holding him down.
Trejo didn’t seem too bothered by the incident, as he laughed off the brawl calling it embarrassing.
“They couldn’t hurt me, it was sad, I would be embarrassed if I attacked an 80-year-old man and he’s still talking and laughing,” Trejo said.
Danny Trejo says he was provoked into a brawling during the Fourth of July incident and insists race played a significant role in why he and his friend were targeted.
TMZ caught up with the actor and his banged-up buddy, and Trejo’s saying he believes they got targeted at the Sunland-Tujunga parade ’cause they’re Mexican — especially since no one else was singled out and hit by water balloons.
Previous video we shared of the brawl showed Danny throwing the first punch — but the actor tells us he was just reacting to a guy who grabbed him first. Plus, he adds someone mentioned it was acid, not water thrown at him, which made him jump out of the car fast.
His friend even shows us just how crazy things got — giving us a close-up of his bruised eye and red, swollen arms, which he said had fingerprints from the other guys all over them.
Bottom line, Danny says it’s pretty sad grown men would stoop low enough to attack an 80-year-old man, only for him to still be talking and laughing after.
Law enforcement told TMZ a radio call came in about a big fight, but by the time they arrived, the crowd had already dispersed, so no arrests were made.
But Danny spoke to us straight after the water balloon drama, slamming the people who threw it at him as “cowards” — and looks like his tune hasn’t changed much after sleeping on it.
Even though Danny Trejo is 80 years old, he’s among the last people in the world any reasonable person should pick a fight with. Granted, he’s not the largest dude on Earth, but he’s just a scary dude. Unfortunately, some dimwitted, probably-inebriated dudes decided to antagonize the prolific, intimidating actor at a small Fourth of July parade. I guess they got what they wanted.
Danny Trejo was invited as a guest to attend a small town parade. He got down to take pictures with his fans, and someone threw a water balloon. He asked to please not throw water balloons at his vehicle and more were thrown which led to an altercation.
The parade took place in the Sunland-Tujunga neighborhood of Los Angeles, as reported by TMZ. Like it’s one thing to chuck water balloons at a celebrity and leave it there when you’re politely asked to stop. It’s another thing to keep doing it to the point of escalating the fabricated spat into a full-blown physical altercation.
I wish I could say that Trejo knocked them all out, but he took the brunt of a blow once he appeared to land a decent left hook.
I thought one of the key tenets of Independence Day was to celebrate the fact that ‘Merica isn’t fighting and is, in fact, a merry band of United States. At least for one holiday perhaps we could pretend like that’s true, no? Yeah I guess that’s wishful thinking when heavy drinking and ignorance are involved.
Why can’t these morons just be like regular folks and, say, kick back to watch the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. Or keep whatever violent inclinations they have confined to their group of friends if they must trade blows on July 4th. Getting a rise out of an octogenarian is quite a low level to stoop to.
Too bad this wasn’t, like, 10 years ago. Then I’d have little doubt Trejo would’ve decked all these clowns. The man has had a colorful life to say the least, though. He went from reformed criminal to happenstance character actor who now owns multiple food businesses, is an author, and his filmography has about 250 credits on it between movies and TV at last count. Trejo also won multiple title belts as a boxer while he was in prison, per his IMDb profile.
Again, probably not someone you’d go out of your way to fight in the street unless you’re an idiot. I mean, Trejo has starred in movies such as Machete, Machete Kills, Bad Ass, Bad Ass 2: Bad Asses, and Bad Asses on the Bayou. How many more implicit warnings do you need not to attack him in real life?
Here’s hoping Trejo recovers fully and speedily from this scuffle that put a damper on the holiday. At least he got up from that initial knockdown to throw a chair into the sea of stupidity that was the instigators.
Source: TMZ, Los Angeles Times, KTTV
