Police use pepper spray to break up fight on the Street

Roughly 10 to 20 people were involved in a “large fight” on Saturday evening at a dance hosted by the Caribbean Connection at the Carl A. Fields Center, Deputy Chief of Public Safety Charles Davall said in an e-mail to The Daily Princetonian. The conflict escalated until Borough Police sprayed the crowd with pepper spray, Davall added.

Several University students were involved in the altercation, according to two students at the event who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Around 1:20 a.m. on Sunday, Public Safety officers received several calls from party attendees who said a fight had broken out in the dance venue.

One Public Safety officer had been assigned to security detail for the event because of its size and nature, Davall said, adding that three officers were on scene when the fight broke out because of an earlier confrontation around midnight at the same event.

At the time of the incident, around 200 people were present, and about 10 to 20 of them were “pushing, shoving and punching each other,” Davall added.

Though two officers tried to stop the violence, the large crowd pushing toward the fight prevented them from calming the situation and separating the combatants.

It soon became clear that the officers and combatants were both in “jeopardy of significant harm,” and other attendees were being hit as well, Davall added.

The crowd dispersed quickly, though, when a Borough Police officer patrolling the area arrived on the scene and sprayed pepper spray over the crowd. The police sprayed the crowd twice before the combatants stopped fighting, Davall said.

The remaining attendees were then evacuated and dispersed in the next 20 minutes, and 21 additional officers from Princeton Township, West Windsor, Plainsboro, Public Safety and Princeton Borough arrived on the scene and were stationed on Prospect Avenue and Olden Street.

Because the officers were more focused on dispersing and controlling the crowd than on making arrests, no assailants had been arrested or identified as of Sunday evening, Davall said, adding that an investigation is ongoing.

“To my knowledge, no one has come forward to report that they were assaulted/injured at this event,” Davall said, adding that some individuals had minor facial injuries.

The Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students is currently investigating whether any individuals who were not affiliated with the University were involved in the conflict, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Tom Dunne said. He explained that outside involvement could constitute a violation of the University’s guest policies and procedures for student events.

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“At this time, it appears that not all our policies for access were followed,” he explained. “What we’re focusing on right now is the extent to which these policies or protocols were overlooked.”

Dunne added that the University had hired student safeguards to monitor the guests and check their ID’s at the entrance.

“[This] is admittedly a rare occurrence but very serious event and something that has no place in our community,” Dunne said of the fight. “We register over a thousand student-sponsored activities and events each year, and a decent percentage of those events are late night social events. In light of such frequency, I believe this incident is an aberration and not the norm at social events sponsored by student organizations.”

Davall also alerted the Princeton community about two more incidents that took place within a few hours of the incident in two e-mails sent on Sunday evening.

A male undergraduate student reported being assaulted and mugged by two males around 2 a.m. on Sunday on Prospect Avenue close to the eating clubs, he said. The assailants took his wallet and drove off in a dark-colored four-door sedan. An investigation of the incident is ongoing.

Around 2:30 a.m. on Sunday near Blair Arch, a male and a female undergraduate student also reported to Public Safety an act of lewdness.

An unidentified man approached the two students and asked for directions to a University building while he exposing himself to them.

Public Safety was unable to locate or identify the individual.

Correction

An earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed Davall with the information that several University students were involved with the altercation. In fact, two students at the event provided that information.