2,000 riot at UMass:
Police say postgame mob was most violent in years

BY Mary Carey
Staff Writer

Published on December 22, 2006

AMHERST - University of Massachusetts officials said they would swiftly discipline students involved in a riot marked by fires, looting and flattened trashcans tossed at police like Frisbees after the NCAA championship football game Friday.

UMass Police estimated 1,800 to 2,000 people surged into the plaza of the Southwest residential area about 11:10 p.m., some 10 minutes after Appalachian State defeated the UMass Minutemen in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Participants immediately started targeting police, said Sgt. Mark Jacques, who was charged with reading the order of dispersal to the mob. Before he could finish reading it a second time, the officer standing next to him was hit in the chest by a sharp chunk of granite broken off a curb, Jacques said.

In the nearly three hours before the disturbance ended, police were pelted with full cans of beer, water bottles, shopping carts, bicycles and flattened trash cans, in addition to chunks of granite weighing several pounds each, Jacques said.

More than 30 UMass police, about 10 Massachusetts State Police and five Amherst police responded, using pepper ball and sting ball projectiles, flash grenades and smoke. At least two officers received minor injuries, police said

There was substantial property damage, including broken windows and looting, UMass officials said. Cost estimates are not expected to be available until sometime this week.

Michael Gargano, vice chancellor for student affairs and campus life, in a prepared statement, said the 10 or more students arrested might face expulsion from the university and loss of the current semester's academic record.

'I'm outraged and terribly disappointed in the students involved in this disturbance,' Gargano said. 'Whether they were active participants, urging on lawbreakers, or being bystanders, they in some way contributed to what transpired. This type of behavior hurts the majority of our students who are studying and preparing for final exams and are at the university for all the right reasons.'

The following people were arrested on various charges from failure to disperse and disorderly conduct to assault with a dangerous weapon and breaking and entering a building at nighttime, which is a felony (see the police log on Page B2 for a complete list of charges):

Michael W. DiPaola, of Melville, N.Y.; David E. Joseph, of Franklin; Jeremiah Drummey, of Norwood; Michael Cevoli, of Brunswick, N.J.; Kelsey Okuda, of Paikou, Hawaii; Samuel E. Seewald, of Northampton; William Sheehan, of Westfield; Clinton Wilkerson, of Dighton; Jeffrey Bowe, of Belchertown, and Paul Yves, of Cambridge.

UMass Police Chief Barbara O'Connor said more people might be charged after police review digital video from security cameras and building swipe-card records.

Police in regular uniforms patrolled the area, quickly calling in back-up officers dressed in riot gear after tension swiftly escalated, Jacques said.

In 22 years of responding to large disturbances at UMass, Jacques said he has faced much larger gatherings, but none has ever been so violent.

Jacques said in most riots he has seen a small core group is committed to violence, a larger group are 'wannabes who could go either way,' with the largest group, by far, composed of nonviolent but curious onlookers.

'This group almost to a person was committed to destruction,' Jacques said. He produced a sharp fragment of curb weighing about 3 to 5 pounds that he said had been hurled at police.

'They were whirling these things as hard as baseballs; they were throwing full cans of beer. It was much more targeted violence against us than usual,' he said.

Jacques attributed the elevated tension to the holiday season, final exams and heightened press in recent days about police patrolling dormitories. It culminated in people looking for someone to take out their frustration at UMass losing the championship game and quickly settling on the police, Jacques speculated.

'It was a different type of a crowd, a different mentality.'