Riot
continued from page 1
Olshanski said police were forced
to wait several hours before a large
enough group could be assembled to
break up the riot.
“There’s absolutely no way you
could take five to 10 officers into
the area and have any effect on a
crowd that size,” she said. “I was in
the middle of it. ... This was an in
credibly violent crowd throwing
bricks and bottles, even as firemen
tried to put out the fires.”
A group began to flock into the
streets just after 11 p.m. Friday
when the student and his room
mates asked an estimated 200 par
tygoers to leave.
At 11:30 p.m., witnesses said a
man took off his shirt, placed it atop
a street sign at the East 14th Avenue
and Ferry Street roundabout, and lit
the clothing on fire.
People then grabbed mattresses,
coffee tables and dressers from sur
rounding homes to feed the flames.
Signs from neighboring streets
were ripped from the ground and
used as propellants in the blaze,
which witnesses estimate reached
30 feet high as the crowd chanted
“Fuck the police” and “U-S-A.”
Nearby Dumpsters were wheeled
from local apartment complexes and
moved to the intersection. Some on
lookers participated in the havoc,
jumping through the flames onto
burning dumpsters, scaling rooftops
and climbing telephone poles.
As the crowd swelled, people rev
eled in the flames, and students in
vited their friends to join the chaos.
“It was drunken immaturity,”
University junior Kelly Nissl said. “I
heard people calling on their cell
phones, ‘Oh! Get over here.’ ”
The activity continued past 2
a.m., when nearly 40 police officers
tried to break up the crowd.
“First (the police) just shot smoke
bombs,” Lane Community College
sophomore Josh Tift said. “Then peo
ple started rushing them, so they shot
rubber bullets and (sprayed) tear gas.”
Witnesses said the party moved
east as people tried to escape the
tear gas and riot police. The crowd
set fires that charred pavement and
left a swath of Dumpsters ablaze.
“The cops just tackled us for
walking down the road,” said Shan
non Johnson, whose female friend
was punched in the face by a
drunken rioter.
Rioters continued on as police fol
lowed close behind, tackling stu
dents and ordering residents to go
inside their homes.
“The cops were shoving and ar
resting random people,” witness
Mike O’Brien said. “They were just
riding up to people on their bikes
and busting people with their sticks.
“It was bad. Very bad.”
Olshanski said police had to use
every means necessary to break up
the crowd but added that no live am
munition was discharged.
“If you’re given an order to dis
perse and you don’t leave, you’re
subject to arrest,” she said.
The group reconvened east of the
police, where rioters overturned a golf
cart at East 14th Avenue and Hilyard
Street, poured gasoline on the vehicle
and set it on fire. People emptied the
contents of nearby recycling bins and
trash cans and lit a large blaze as riot
ers danced around the flames.
Feet away, people uprooted street
signs and set a small tree on fire. The
group vandalized a phone box and
set it ablaze as well. An estimated
400 residents were left without
phone or Internet service, according
to a Qwest employee at the scene
Saturday morning. Service is ex
pected to be restored this evening.
At East 13th Avenue and Hilyard
Street, Subway employee Brett
Michel heard riot stories from cus
tomers throughout his evening shift.
He stepped outside at about 1:30
a.m. and watched as the riot contin
ued toward the University.
“I told everyone we should think
about closing shop because (the riot)
was getting closer,” he said.
As police arrived on the scene,
they announced over loudspeak
ers, “Get off the street, get off the
sidewalks.”
Not everyone listened.
A videotape obtained by the
Emerald showed one man repeatedly
ignoring police requests to leave the
scene and trying to put out the fire in
the middle of Hilyard Street near East
14th Alley. Police shoved him in the
back as they tried to clear the street.
“They fired off the tear gas, and
everyone scattered,” Michel said.
The video showed people chok
ing and coughing as the tear gas did
its work.
“If I knew this was what Eugene
was about, I would have been here a
longtime ago,” he said.
One young man hoped to keep the
party going.
“Where’s the beer at?” he asked.
People walking in the neighbor
hood felt the effects of the gas from
blocks away.
“We were just walking down the
street at 14th and Alder — we felt
the tear gas hit us and our eyes start
ed to water,” University student
Blake Gebhardt said.
A second round of tear gas dis
couraged further rioting, and people
began to disperse. By 3 a.m., police
had cleared the area and cordoned
off streets as students watched from
their windows.
Cleanup crews soon went to
work, and the charred remains of
the golf cart were scooped up by a
bulldozing crew.
“I’ve been here for three years,
and this is the first time I’ve
cleaned up something like this,”
one worker said.
Contact the news editor
at brookreinhard@dailyemerald.com
and the senior news reporter
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