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Apr 26, 2009 10:41 pm US/Central
'U' Students, Others Riot After Concert Canceled
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ―
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"This was mayhem created by drunk college students," said Minneapolis Police Sgt. Jesse Garcia.
CBS
Twelve people have been arrested and a Dinkytown neighborhood is recovering after a riot.
Hundreds of people crowded the streets around the 1400 block of 7th Street near the University of Minnesota campus Saturday night. They were celebrating Spring Jam when a house party got out of control.
"It was absurd. It got way out of hand. I don't know what people were thinking but it was a mess, it was scary," said Amanda Matrejek, who lives on 7th Street.
Collin Malaney watched from his front porch on 14th Avenue.
"It felt like downtown Baghdad out there. This felt like a warzone," he recalled.
The crowd swelled and became destructive around Dinkytown after a Spring Jam concert was canceled. Some set fires and tried to tip over cars. Neighbors said they saw people attending the parties drink alcohol all day long. There was no party patrol this year, though more Minneapolis officers were on duty in the area.
"I heard people say, 'There's no police, anything goes.' People just thought that there was no law enforcement, period," said Malaney.
Officers in riot gear pushed back the crowd with tear gas and foam bullets. The confrontation lasted about five hours.
"My entire house was flooded with tear gas," said Dan Schindler.
"It hit me in the back. And then I have tear gas in one of my eyes from it just spraying in my face," said one young woman.
Students and other residents around 7th Street spent Sunday morning cleaning up the mess.
"Deplorable, it is deplorable. Like I tell the kids, this is my neighborhood, not just a university," commented June Kroening, who has lived in the area for more than 40 years.
Amanda Matrejek thinks police could've acted sooner.
"I think if they had taken advantage of the situation earlier and broken it up before it got so out of hand, it wouldn't have escalated to the point it did," she said.
However, police say they did respond right away, but had to regroup when people threw rocks and bottles at them.
"Obviously [this was] just to cause damage and to cause mayhem and that's not going to be tolerated," said Sgt. Jesse Garcia with the Minneapolis Police Department. "This was mayhem created by drunk college students."
The University of Minnesota administration said in a statement:
"Recently, we strengthened our student conduct code to be applicable to off-campus situations such as this. We intend to use that code to its fullest as more is learned about those who were arrested and involved in this incident."
Minneapolis police said of the 12 people arrested, some may have been cited and released already. Five are current U of M students, two are recent students, one is a future student and four are non-students.
There could be more arrests if police identify instigators from videotape.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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