Mulberry residents regroup after up-close look at turmoil

Mulberry Street residents, from left, Annette Mendoza, Elizabeth Montoya, an unidentified child, Elaina Ortiz, and her mom, Jamie Ortiz, discuss the riot. In front is Catalina Montoya, 5.

Mulberry Street residents, from left, Annette Mendoza, Elizabeth Montoya, an unidentified child, Elaina Ortiz, and her mom, Jamie Ortiz, discuss the riot. In front is Catalina Montoya, 5.

Throughout Saturday afternoon, rioters ran repeatedly through Ivy Davis' yard.

They picked up bricks from around her home and even kicked stones off the siding on her porch to throw at police and firefighters.

"I've been here for 10 years and I've never seen anything like this," said Ms. Davis, 27, who lives at 3114 Mulberry with her parents.

"I'm from Los Angeles and this was the kind of stuff you see there," she said.

Ms. Davis said at one point, rioters tried to break into the back door of her home to hide from authorities.

"They kept saying they needed water because of the tear gas," Ms. Davis said. "I told them to use the water hose outside. It was very scary."

David Castillo, 48, and his wife, Faye, 47, watched rioters run up and down the street from their residence at 3020 Mulberry.

Mr. Castillo said that although he was protecting his house, he understood the anger of the young people involved in the riot.

David Castillo said he protected his house during the unrest, but he understood the anger of the young people in the riot.

"They said this was their neighborhood and they were going to make a stand against the Nazis," Mr. Castillo said.

"The young people were doing what they thought was right. They shouldn't have never let [the neo-Nazis] try to march in this neighborhood. The police couldn't control [the rioters]," Mr. Castillo said.

Mrs. Castillo said, though, the turmoil only went to the point the neo-Nazis were trying to make about violence in the neighborhood.

"All they are doing is going back home and saying, 'See, we told you.' "

Hollie Derden, 30, who also lives on Mulberry, was showing her neighbors what looked like a nasty dog bite on her right leg, behind the knee.

She explained that a dog bit her while she was running through back yards to get away from the tear gas that came through a broken window and filled her house when she was seeking refuge during the riot.

Ms. Derden was not home when the riot started but went back after friends told her that they saw on television that some people were tearing down her front door.

Ms. Derden said she went back to her home, persuaded her neighbors to help her fight off the looters, and hid in the house until she had to get away from the tear gas.

Jamie Ortiz, 29, said she was trying to pick up her daughter from a relative's house at 3016 Mulberry but couldn't make it to the street.

She said she was frustrated by what she saw as senseless violence.

"I think [the rioting] was ignorant," Ms. Ortiz said. "There was no reason for it. We let [the neo-Nazis] get to us."

Her relative, Elizabeth Montoya, 28, said she had to put her children in the basement Saturday because of the strong smell of the tear gas.

She said she only became scared when Jim and Lou's Bar, at 3032 Mulberry, caught fire.

"We knew if the fire went into the trees, it would catch the next house on fire and it would have just went down the row," Ms. Montoya said.

"I think the majority of the residents of North Toledo did not participate [in the riot]," said Terry Glazer, executive director of the Lagrange Development Corp.

"Many people who did were not residents," Mr. Glazer said.

"This is not a North Toledo issue. It could have happened anywhere," he said.

"This is a matter of that hate group coming here and of the media advertising or covering this event," he said.

Staff Writer Mike Sigov contributed to this story.