Dozens of 911 calls made to report drag racing, cars doing donuts in Boston's Back Bay

There was apparently chaos on the streets of Boston's Back Bay neighborhood early Sunday morning.

Boston police say around thirty 911 calls were made about the wild scene. According to a police report, one caller told police that there were about 40 people yelling and approximately 15 vehicles driving the wrong way in the surrounding area of Dartmouth and Marlborough streets, with multiple vehicles doing donuts, drag racing, and racing up and down Commonwealth Avenue.

Officers responded to a radio call around 2:13 a.m. to investigate what was happening, the police report shows. Several officers responded but were unable to make it to the intersection due to a multitude of vehicles, so they parked their cruisers and walked to the area where they found a large group of people gathered around.

There were multiple vehicles facing the wrong direction on one-way streets while others were doing burnouts and donuts, causing the air to be filled with white smoke, which diminished visibility, the police report stated. This was happening with at least three different intersections along Marlborough Street.

Officers repeatedly told the crowd to vacate the area, and there was a glass bottle and fireworks thrown in the direction of the police as they attempted to reopen the road, according to the police report.

Officers saw people with professional looking cameras recording the illegal motor vehicle activities through the entire ordeal. There have also been videos posted to social media and YouTube showing the mayhem.

There were 41 vehicles parked blocking the roadway in the surrounding area of Marlborough and Dartmouth streets, with police taking down their license plate numbers -- there were registrations from Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Illinois, according to the police report. Police also issued five parking violations to vehicles that were double parked on Comm. Ave.

People who live in the neighborhood and watched it all go down told NBC10 Boston on Sunday that they were woken up in the middle of the night by the madness in the streets. They say the smell of burning rubber, the loud screaming and the hectic scene in general were all too much.

Rich Blanco says he still can't believe what he saw and he has to go back to the video he recorded to believe it.

"It was like an event. It was like hey we're gonna meet here and it was like a little impromptu party," he shared. "Multiple cars did the donuts. Maybe six of them came in kind of took their turn."

"Cars like going VROOOOM up and down the street," Tamara Paul recalled. "I knew it was drag racing because I could tell what drag racing is."

Paul heard it all but Blanco got out of bed like many others to see what was going on -- and then record it. He says he's still having to go back and watch what he recorded just to believe that it really did happen.

"In real life, you could see someone that could almost be killed. We see it on TV all the time, but I mean, it was right in front of us so it took me like an hour to relax and go back to bed," he said. "It was really pretty shocking."

Multiple neighbors told NBC10 Boston that this went on for 20 minutes, noting how difficult it was for police to get to the scene. Video shared with NBC10 Boston by Ben Ashman shows what appears to be police trying to break up the raucous crowd.

City councilor Ed Flynn wrote a letter to Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox about the events, saying it is not an isolated issue and asking police to be proactive as summer approaches.

Contacted @bostonpolice Commissioner Cox re dangerous activity at 2am Saturday in Back Bay; shutting down streets, drag racing, doing “donuts”, driving wrong way. W/ weather improving, also critical we ensure safety of residents from dirt bikes & similar recent issues. #bospoli pic.twitter.com/4zysnOOSvg

— Ed Flynn 愛德華費連 (@EdforBoston) April 22, 2024

Blanco and all his neighbors hope whoever orchestrated the madness pays the price.

"I hope police can find them," he said.

There was no mention of any arrests on Sunday.