Nearly 10 flipped cars and flames that reached the height of apartment buildings turned 13th Avenue into a war zone during the early morning riots yesterday.
After a day of celebration and the greatest win of the season on Saturday, the evening after displayed the worst of fan appreciation. Disturbances along Chittenden Avenue, 13th Avenue, 15th Avenue and High Street grew from midnight to 4 a.m., leading to the worst riots Columbus and the university have dealt with since the 1970s.
“It’s a shame. I mean, the football team did a tremendous feat this season and right now, nobody cares about it. All they know is there is national attention and the fact that a bunch of people, whether they are students, visitors, whatever, have just trashed this entire area,” said Sherry Mercurio, spokeswoman for the Columbus Division of Police.
About 250 police officers were on duty that evening. Most had been riding through the university district monitoring parties in the university district. Only when the frenzied fans began to threaten the safety of police officers and firefighters did authorities take action.
“Police responded and conducted themselves with restraint, but the trouble spread throughout the area,” said Bill Hall, vice president of Student Affairs.
“It was a bunch of thugs and too much alcohol,” Hall said.
The police were chasing the riots in the off-campus area and were unable to get ahead of the trouble.
“It’s like as you get one area cleaned up, they are suddenly attacking another area. They were attacking any street they could, they weren’t being selective,” Mercurio said.
At 11:45 p.m. Saturday night, all was calm and several parties around the off-campus area were taking place.
For most of the evening, Chittenden Avenue had the largest gathering of people, and the parties were mostly contained on the south side of the street. By about 12:30 a.m., the party-goers had spread to the north side of the street and covered an area about a block wide.
A mattress, lit on fire and thrown into the middle of Chittenden Avenue, started the commotion. Blazes continued to grow in intensity as frenzied fans added couches, chairs, closet doors, street signs and trees to the fire. People were hanging from trees along the road and attempting to break the branches.
People began to gather around the fire and cheer on others as they added more items to the fire. Chanting “OH-IO,” the fans ran through the fire and women flashed the crowd. Onlookers from houses and buildings were setting off fireworks and watching as beer cans flew through the air.
“This is great. It’s not necessary, it’s just an added bonus,” said Scott Shelton, a sophomore in elementary education.
As the flames grew, so did the crowds.
Columbus Division of Police helicopters were flying above the street with spotlights focused on the fire and the crowd.
“We had really tried to take a hands-off approach. We let them celebrate, we told them to celebrate, but do it in the parameter of the law,” Mercurio said.
At 12:50 a.m., the police could be seen coming down the street from Indianola Avenue toward High Street in full riot gear.
As the police came closer, anyone still outside was sprayed with tear gas and told to get inside a house. Police fired several knee-knockers down the street at those who were throwing beer cans in their direction. The street cleared quickly.
“They are just trying to control. They’re not out of control,” said Diana Snodgrass, a senior in political science, about how police handled the events of the evening.
On 13th Avenue between Indianola Avenue and Summit Street at about 1:26 a.m., one car was upside down and on fire, which soon caused the car parked behind it to catch fire.
As cars were flipped, fans stuffed toilet paper into the tailpipes and set it on fire. Others shoved cardboard and flammable material into cars to keep the fires going.
Police were not present at the time; they were still covering the problems on Chittenden Avenue.
Nothing was safe on 13th Avenue, as fans attacked cars and even tossed a refrigerator into the middle of the street. The “OH-IO” chant could be heard coming from all sides of the street and inside homes.
At about 2 a.m., the police could be seen moving down the street from Summit Street toward Indianola Avenue. The rioters ran from the area and hid inside houses and apartments. The crowd was constantly on the move, especially when the police force appeared.
An armored police van moved among the flipped cars, pushing people off the street. Again, the area cleared and people entered houses and apartments to get away from the oncoming police brigade.
Police moved down the street as well as through the alleys to the left and right of the street. The police sprayed tear gas and shot knee-knockers into the air to clear the street.
Inside houses, the gas leaked under doors and through cracks in windows. Onlookers were coughing, crying and gagging from the gas.
Firefighters moved in to put out the fires after the streets had been cleared of rioters, and tow trucks arrived from Indianola to begin the process of removing the debris from the street.
At a press conference yesterday, an estimated 20 vehicles were reported overturned and nine burned.
About 2:40 a.m., the rioters converged at the intersection of High Street and 15th Avenue, riddling it with newspaper stands, benches and anything that could be picked up and thrown.
Police cars and vans moved quickly down High Street from police headquarters on 9th Avenue at 3:10 a.m. They headed to the intersection and began pulling the large objects from the street and creating lane restrictions with orange cones. Participants scattered onto campus and into the university off-campus area.
According to police, 48 arrests had been made as of yesterday afternoon; four are confirmed Ohio State students. Those arrested will be suspended from the university and depending on the charges, could be expelled. No injuries had been reported.
“We will review the television tape and other photographic evidence of last night’s events and identify as many of those as possible who were involved,” said OSU President Karen A. Holbrook.
University administration asks anyone who can help identify the participants in criminal and destructive behavior to come forward and contact Hall.
A Web site will be set up by the Office of Student Affairs to try to track down as many people as possible who were involved in the riots and directly responsible for arson and malicious destruction.
“We had an opportunity to shine to the nation, and we did on the field,” said Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman. “Our shine was tarnished last night.”
Coleman said the City of Columbus will work with the university to bring all participants in the riots to justice.
“We will be actively pursuing felonies against arsonists,” Coleman said. “We will identify — if we can — arsonists. We want to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.”
Andy Geiger, athletics director at OSU, said the players have worked hard to gain respect, and he does not want the actions of the rioters to cloud the success of the football team.
“Any connection to our season and the behavior that took place last night is a gross insult,” Geiger said.
“The bottom line is individual responsibility,” Coleman said. “What do you want your university to stand for?”
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