Video Shows Man Running Into Traffic During Chaotic Los Angeles Street Incident—‘What Drug He On?’

A video shared on X has sparked discussion online after it showed a man appearing to have some kind of meltdown on a Los Angeles street corner. The video was reshared by X user @ViralVideos, who claimed that the city’s taxpaying residents have to deal with “thousands upon thousands” of “crazy people roaming our streets.”

Along with the allegation, the X user attempted to show what they described as proof by resharing a clip of a man apparently standing on the corner of a street in Los Angeles. The footage shows him behaving erratically, although it does not provide any context about what may have been happening to him.

Man’s Erratic Behavior on Los Angeles Street Sparks Discussion Online

In a clip making the rounds online, a man is being recorded, possibly by someone standing nearby, at the corner of a busy four-way intersection. At first, the man stands with his hands on his knees and his head bent down. But then he begins to become a bit erratic by moving around and tripping over his bike.

He then starts grabbing at his mouth, similar to how one might do when they have a throbbing toothache, and erratically trips around while holding onto a pole. At one point, it seems like he can no longer take whatever is bothering him, so he takes off across the road without even considering traffic and runs to the other side of the busy street.

Over there, he continues to bend over and grab at his mouth and even appears to bend over as though he may vomit.

It’s not clear what the man was dealing with, but according to the X user, there are instances playing out like this frequently in Los Angeles. The clip itself also does not confirm whether drugs, a mental health crisis, a medical issue, or something else was responsible for the man’s behavior.

What is clear, however, is that Los Angeles continues to deal with a pretty big homelessness crisis, with Skid Row being one area in the city that attracts many people without homes, including people experiencing substance use disorders.

Los Angeles County estimates that about 3,800 people were experiencing homelessness on Skid Row in 2024, even though the neighborhood spans only about 50 square blocks. The County also says Skid Row has the highest “concentration of people experiencing homelessness” in the county and also “registers the highest rates of substance use and mental health crises, HIV/AIDS, and overdose mortalities.”

While one commenter suggested that the man in the clip might have been experiencing a bad reaction to drugs, writing, “What drug he took?” it’s not clear if that was the case.

Another, however, was more critical of the situation, writing, “It’s like going on the Safari without having to go on the Safari.”

The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify the circumstances surrounding the video or determine what caused the man's behavior. The claims made in the post are based solely on the X user's account and the footage shared online.