Police fire pellets at rioters during Kent State party
COLUMBUS, Ohio - An end-of-year college block party spiraled out of control as police fired pellets and used pepper spray to break up hundreds of rioting students who sparked street fires at Kent State University.
Videos posted on the Internet show students hurling furniture and street signs into the flames on Saturday night as a SWAT team in riot gear converged on the crowd. Kent police said the party grew violent after one reveler was arrested and students began pelting officers with bottles, bricks, and rocks.
It was the first violent clash between Kent State students and police in years. In 1970, four Kent State students were killed by Ohio National Guard troops during a campus protest of the invasion of Cambodia.
"They were burning pretty much everything," said police dispatcher Rosemarie Mosher. "They were throwing stop signs on the fires, they were throwing chairs, couches, tree branches. Basically anything they could get their hands on."
At least 64 students were arrested, and several officers had minor injuries, Mosher said. Students gathered on front porches about 8:30 p.m. and began spilling into the streets on the unusually warm evening.
When officers ordered the crowd to disperse, students built piles of couches, suitcases, and other debris and lit them on fire. There were at least four fires blazing in the middle of the street, Mosher said.
The students led the police down the road starting fires, said Ben Wolford, an editor at the campus newspaper who witnessed the riot.
"They were going into their houses and bringing out office chairs," he said.
Choruses of boos were captured on video as firefighters doused the fires, and students cheered as others quickly ran back into the street to spark more. 