Danny Trejo Breaks Silence on LA 4th of July Parade Brawl After Being Hit With Water Balloon

Danny Trejo has claimed he was targeted when he was hit by a water balloon during a Fourth of July parade in Los Angeles, leading to a chaotic fight involving the iconic actor.

The “Machete” star was sitting in the passenger seat of a light blue convertible alongside his friend 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 heard someone yell that the balloon contained “acid.”

“I’m so sad, the way I acted, so sad that grown men have to throw water balloons to enjoy a day,” Trejo told the outlet. “I don’t think I would have gotten out of the car if someone hadn’t yelled ‘that’s acid.’ That’s when I freaked out,” he added.

Trejo got out of the car to confront a group of people on the sidewalk and began fighting with a man wearing a sleeveless black shirt.

The alleged suspect punched Trejo as the two grappled, causing the actor to fall backward onto the street, video obtained by KTTV shows.

Trejo and Castillo said they were chosen because they were Mexican, especially since no one else was hit by water balloons during the parade.

“It was targeted because there was nobody else shooting balloons in front of us or behind us,” Castillo said. “You know, it was just our lowrider.”

“Come on, you have a classic lowrider in a parade, that’s the last thing you want to see water or anything in it,” he added.

Nearly a dozen people had surrounded the classic car to greet the legendary actor when a parade participant reportedly threw a water balloon at it.

“There were about eight, nine, 10 people around that car when they threw that ball, so no one was worried about hitting anyone else,” he explained.

Trejo told TMZ he only reacted because someone grabbed him first.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the confrontation escalated when a second water balloon was thrown at Trejo’s head.

“Everybody was holding him back,” Arnie Abramyan, who filmed 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 screaming, yelling, he was angry and he was trying to get to the guy who threw the water balloon.”

Others at the July 4 celebration blamed Trejo for the fight, saying he should have stayed in his car.

“(Trejo) pushed the women out of the way to get to these guys,” Sunland-Tujunga resident James Spishak told the Times. “There were kids there. It could have gotten really bad. It never would have happened if he had stayed in the car.”

“I love Danny Trejo, I think he’s a cool guy, but he’s got to know when to say ‘no,'” Spishak said, claiming the actor slapped him when he tried to break up the fight.

It took several parade participants to break up the fight, and footage of the aftermath of the fight showed Castillo bleeding from the eye while Trejo was restrained.

The actor’s friend said he suffered a bruised right eye and red, swollen arms after people trampled on him while holding him down.

Trejo didn’t seem too bothered by the incident, as he laughed off the fight, calling it embarrassing.

“They couldn’t hurt me, it was sad, I would have been embarrassed if I had attacked an 80-year-old man and he was still talking and laughing,” Trejo said.