Shots Fired on Kent State Students
Kent’s College Fest turns rowdy By Paula Schleis
The Kent Police Department would not make a statement Saturday evening, but student journalists at the Daily Kent Stater and KentNewsNet.com were out in full force, covering events on their Web site and updating the community regularly on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/kent360.).
Kristine Gill, editor of KentNewsNet.Com, said she and others went to investigate after seeing flames from their office at Franklin Hall.
”The flames were filling the street, like 15 feet high, and kids were throwing furniture on it and hanging from trees and screaming ‘KSU’ over and over again,” she said.
She said students told her the fire was started because police were harassing students on their front lawns and firing rubber bullets. Gill said some students showed her welts.
Police assembled into a ‘’skirmish line,” she said, dressed in riot gear, with night sticks and ”rubber bullet guns.”
”A fireman said they were going to just get the students out of the way marching down the street so they could reach the fire and put it out,” Gill said.
But after that fire was put out, three more fires were started, and she witnessed people pulling down street signs and stop signs. Many people ran from the police, Gill said, but others appeared to be getting arrested.
Jonas Fortune, a KSU student and Akron Beacon Journal sports correspondent, said he was in the neighborhood watching the NFL Draft when he heard about the fire.
When he got to College Avenue, he saw people feeding a fire with two-by-fours, mattresses, ”even doors they were carrying from houses.”
He watched police arrive in riot gear, and Fortune said two of his photojournalism friends told him they were hit with rubber bullets.
”I heard some shooting,” Fortune said. ”I’m not sure if it was tear gas or pepper gas or something like that.”
Fortune said a crowd ‘’stampeded” past him to get away from police, and he watched several people stop at the intersection of College Avenue and South Willow Street to light another fire. He also saw people throwing glass bottles at police and ripping down street signs.
After rioters were pushed off Willow, Fortune said, the crowd moved toward Lincoln Hall, on North Willow Street, where people tried to start more fires.
KentNewsNet.com reported seeing emergency vehicles from Suffield Township, Munroe Falls, Tallmadge, Ravenna, Cuyahoga Falls, Streetsboro, Brady Lake, Kent, Kent State, Brimfield, the Portage County sheriff, Aurora and the State Highway Patrol.
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com.
College Fest, an annual Kent State University spring rite marked by drinking and general hanging out on College Avenue, ended in several furniture-fed street fires and police in full riot gear Saturday night.
The Kent Police Department would not make a statement Saturday evening, but student journalists at the Daily Kent Stater and KentNewsNet.com were out in full force, covering events on their Web site and updating the community regularly on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/kent360.).
Kristine Gill, editor of KentNewsNet.Com, said she and others went to investigate after seeing flames from their office at Franklin Hall.
”The flames were filling the street, like 15 feet high, and kids were throwing furniture on it and hanging from trees and screaming ‘KSU’ over and over again,” she said.
She said students told her the fire was started because police were harassing students on their front lawns and firing rubber bullets. Gill said some students showed her welts.
Police assembled into a ‘’skirmish line,” she said, dressed in riot gear, with night sticks and ”rubber bullet guns.”
”A fireman said they were going to just get the students out of the way marching down the street so they could reach the fire and put it out,” Gill said.
But after that fire was put out, three more fires were started, and she witnessed people pulling down street signs and stop signs. Many people ran from the police, Gill said, but others appeared to be getting arrested.
Jonas Fortune, a KSU student and Akron Beacon Journal sports correspondent, said he was in the neighborhood watching the NFL Draft when he heard about the fire.
When he got to College Avenue, he saw people feeding a fire with two-by-fours, mattresses, ”even doors they were carrying from houses.”
He watched police arrive in riot gear, and Fortune said two of his photojournalism friends told him they were hit with rubber bullets.
”I heard some shooting,” Fortune said. ”I’m not sure if it was tear gas or pepper gas or something like that.”
Fortune said a crowd ‘’stampeded” past him to get away from police, and he watched several people stop at the intersection of College Avenue and South Willow Street to light another fire. He also saw people throwing glass bottles at police and ripping down street signs.
After rioters were pushed off Willow, Fortune said, the crowd moved toward Lincoln Hall, on North Willow Street, where people tried to start more fires.
KentNewsNet.com reported seeing emergency vehicles from Suffield Township, Munroe Falls, Tallmadge, Ravenna, Cuyahoga Falls, Streetsboro, Brady Lake, Kent, Kent State, Brimfield, the Portage County sheriff, Aurora and the State Highway Patrol.
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com.
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