Scuffle Erupts During Latest Health Raid on Vendors : Law enforcement: Officers use pepper spray to subdue a man they say resisted orders. His wife gives a different account of the arrest.

PANORAMA CITY — The latest in a series of health department raids on illegal street vendors turned violent Wednesday when a Los Angeles police officer was forced to use pepper spray to subdue a man who was later cited for illegally preparing corn for sale on the street.

The raid marked the first incident in a series of inspections at a run-down apartment complex on Blythe Street, which has been a home to dozens of street vendors and has been raided twice since July.

“Usually there’s no problem,” said Officer Shelley Gale, who was involved in the pepper spray incident. “Usually, they’re pretty cooperative.”

The scuffle broke out as health inspectors and Gale converged on an apartment complex in the 14700 block of Blythe Street, one of several sites visited by county health inspectors and police from the Van Nuys station Wednesday.

The sweep was part of a periodic crackdown on people who illegally prepare and sell food from pushcarts on public streets and sidewalks.

The man who was subdued with pepper spray was identified as Domingo Armas Martinez, 24, who was taken into custody near his apartment and was booked for battery on a police officer. Gale said Armas was arrested after a scuffle outside his apartment.

“He was ahead of me walking up to the door and that’s when I said, ‘Excuse me, sir,’ ” Gale said. “He didn’t want to have the health department come in to his apartment. He basically pushed me and he continued to resist and I had to spray him.”

Lucia Armas, Armas’ wife, told a different story.

“He was going into our apartment and the officer (Gale) grabbed him by the hair,” she said, adding that her husband was holding the hand of their son, 2-year-old Amador, at the time. A struggle then broke out, and Lucia Armas said the officer sprayed her husband twice.

Several officers were called in to assist Gale after the initial arrest was made.

Manus Boonkokua, a county environmental health specialist at the scene, said the Armas apartment was the only one cited--a misdemeanor health code violation for cooking corn for sale on the streets in unsanitary conditions.

Lucia Armas flatly denied that her husband is a street vendor. Police disagreed, and said Armas had been cited before for a health code violation involving the preparation of food for sale on the street.

Gale called the hair-grabbing accusation “lies” but agreed that he had struggled with Armas.

The single citation Wednesday was the lowest for the building’s tenants in the three health department visits during the last four months. In July, fire, building and safety and health officials issued more than 80 citations, and last month, several health code citations were issued by health department officials in a similar raid.

The Blythe Street inspection drew criticism from some city officials, including Robert Valdez, street vending administrator for the Bureau of Public Works, who was at the apartment complex at the time giving a presentation on a proposed street vending ordinance.

The news of health inspectors in the building disrupted the presentation and sent people scurrying back to their apartment units.

“I didn’t like the action that happened today,” Valdez said. “I think the LAPD has more pressing problems.”

“There have been some very good things going on in Blythe Street,” said City Councilman Richard Alarcon, who represents the area and is grappling with the proposed ordinance, which would legalize street vending in some areas under certain conditions. “I only hope that this (incident) doesn’t move us backwards.”

Alarcon said he will meet with Blythe Street representatives and contact county health officials about the problems at the particular apartment. But some fear that the action has already damaged the relationship between police and residents of Blythe Street.

“For years, these people were afraid to talk to the police. They would not call to report crimes,” said Genny Alberts, the apartment building manager. “Now, they had established a relationship. What are they trying to do, screw it up?”