Violence Erupts After Minnesota State, Mankato Homecoming

Oct 5, 2003 5:20 pm US/Central
Mankato, Minn. (AP) About forty people were arrested in a late-night melee following a homecoming game at Minnesota State, Mankato.

Mankato Public Safety Director Jim Franklin told WCCO radio of Minneapolis that at the height of the disturbance, which occurred across the street from campus in a residential area heavily populated by students, 2,000-3,000 people massed together. Many of them set fire to trash bins, overturned cars and threw rocks and bricks at police.

Franklin said four officers were injured by projectiles thrown by students.

It'* unclear how many students were injured, but authorities said none were killed.

Franklin said the area was so hostile that it took an armored vehicle attended by 12 officers to pick up a student who reportedly wasn't breathing.

He blamed alcohol for the problems.

Police arrived in riot gear and used eye and skin irritants to disperse the crowd.

Witnesses said the riot started when about 400 students, who were having a party after the game, became violent and started throwing empty beer bottles.

As word spread, the crowd grew, and the mob damaged vehicles and shut down a street. Franklin said police also received reports of fights between students, but the department is still trying to get a handle on how many.

Four large fires were reported in an apartment complex parking lot, set in trash bins and on a car that was tipped over and burned. Windows were broken out of cars, fence posts were torn out of the ground and business and street signs were torn down and destroyed, witnesses said.

The roughly 160 police officers from about 40 departments that responded were able to disperse the crowd by about 4:30 Sunday morning, Franklin said.

Bob Idding, who lives near the site of the riots, said he couldn't believe what he was seeing after he walked to the scene.

"It was the scariest feeling in the world," Idding said. "I shouldn't have been there, I know that. My wife and I were telling each other, 'This isn't Mankato, Minnesota. We have police in riot gear in the streets."'

Mankato lost their homecoming game 20-9 to North Dakota State. The Mavericks are now 0-6 for the season.

The University of Minnesota'* Minneapolis campus was the scene of similar violence for the past two years following the school'* back-to-back NCAA hockey championships.