Ten injured after Sigma Chi skirmish

Sigma Chi member Kevin Harbour said he was trying to get the trespassers to leave about 2 a.m. when someone approached from behind and hit him on the head with a rock.

"I didn't do a damn thing to provoke this," Harbour said yesterday. "I have no idea how this started."

Harbour, a finance and accounting junior, was hospitalized Saturday morning and released that afternoon after being treated for a concussion.

Cmdr. Brian Seastone, a University of Arizona Police Department spokesman, said no arrests have been made, but fraternity members said a group of 15 to 20 men were to blame. Police drew composite sketches from descriptions offered by fraternity members.

Seastone also said damage to the house was estimated between $500 and $1,000.

Fraternity members reported that one man grabbed a hockey stick from a room and began swinging it, causing damage throughout the house, Seastone said. Others shattered the windshield of a car parked near the Sigma Chi house, 1616 E. First St.

Seastone said fraternity members were returning home from a Sigma Chi-sponsored party when 20 to 30 people allegedly entered the house. When members asked them to leave, some obliged, but others stayed behind, prompting the fight.

He also said university police officers later stopped one car believed to be involved in the attack, but released the passengers because police could not confirm their involvement in the fight.

Sigma Chi President Erik Nelson said yesterday he was "pained" by the incident.

"It's infuriating," said Nelson, a finance senior. "This was something that was completely vicious."

He said the group had been wandering around the UA campus, mainly between East First and East Second Streets, before they started the fight at Sigma Chi.

Nelson and Seastone said 10 Sigma Chi members will press assault charges if the assailants are apprehended. Paramedics treated victims at the scene for various injuries, Nelson said.

"People are looking for answers today," Nelson said. "There's no reason for any of this to have happened."

Jarrod Hooper, Sigma Chi's vice president, said the fraternity is trying to increase house security to deter trespassers.

"It's pretty ridiculous when you think about it," said Hooper, a marketing junior. "It's sad when guys resort to fistfights when you ask them to leave."

David J. Cieslak can be reached via e-mail at David.J.Cieslak@wildcat.arizona.edu.