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By Tom Collins
Arizona Daily Wildcat
November 26, 1996
University police arrested two people on assault charges and two other assaults were reported at the football game against Arizona State Saturday."Certainly it was typical of the UA-ASU football game," said Deputy Chief Harry Hueston II of the University of Arizona Police Department. However, "There was more crowd violence for this game than any other (this year)."
Two people were arrested and cited on assault charges during the game.
According to UAPD reports, Paul J. Romo, 30, of Phoenix, was cited after police saw him punch a ticket taker at Arizona Stadium's Gate 4. Romo was apparently at the wrong gate and started arguing with the ticket taker and spit on him before punching him, police reports stated.
The ticket taker suffered a cut on his right cheek, and Romo was cited on a charge of assault and was not allowed into the stadium.
A Tucson man was also cited for assault after he allegedly struck a woman during the game.
According to police reports, Albert R. Salinas, 44, of the 500 block of West 44th Street, got into an argument with a fan from ASU between Sections 12 and 13. Salinas reportedly swung at the fan and struck the fan's girlfriend instead, police reports stated. A scuffle ensued, and Salinas was cited on a charge of assault and ejected from the stadium.
Two other assaults were also reported to police, according to police reports.
A male student was found by police in the concourse bathroom between Sections 5 and 6. The student was dirty and bleeding from his nose. A witness told police that a man punched the student for no reason.
A Tucson man told police he was assaulted after an ASU fan made a comment about the UA team being "losers." The ASU fan then tripped the man and kicked him, reports stated.
Hueston said the security response to these kinds of situations is coordinated from a stadium sky box. He said the Event Management Inc. security staff and law enforcement personnel work together on crowd control.
Depending on the situation, event staff will warn the fan involved to stop misbehaving. But if the action persists, Hueston said the fan can be ejected from the stadium.
Police warned ejected fans not to return during the game. If they returned, they were cited for
criminal trespassing, Hueston said.
According to police reports, a Flagstaff man, Shane A. O'Brien, 24, was escorted from the stadium for disruptive behavior and warned not to return. Later, police saw O'Brien in another section of the stadium "trying to blend in." According to police reports, police tapped O'Brien on the shoulder, and he tried to run away. He was escorted from the stadium and cited for criminal trespassing.
In some situations, an immediate police response will be taken, Hueston said.
For example, he said several baseballs were tossed onto the field during the game, causing the immediate ejection of those who threw them. He said that if the balls had hit someone, the throwers could have been cited for assault.
According to police reports, a male student was ejected from the stadium and enrolled in the Dean of Students' diversion program after a witness reported seeing him throw a tortilla.
Police did not involve themselves in the post-game disorder as ASU fans stormed the field and attempted to take down the goal posts. That was by design, Hueston said.
He said Arizona Department of Public Safety officers with civil disobedience training were on hand to keep an eye on the fans but were only to enter the crowd in two situations.
First, Hueston said, if a person on the field needed first aid, the DPS officers would have secured that area so the injured person could be removed.
He said the other factor would have been brought about by "wholesale violence."
"If there were 20 or 30 people beating the crap out of each other," police would intervene, Hueston said. He said most fights broke up very quickly.
The goal posts at Arizona Stadium are specially designed not to collapse, Hueston said. After 15 minutes, event security was sent in to begin removing fans from the goal posts, he said
Hueston said police presence was not increased for the game.
"We anticipated that there would be increased calls for police services, and there were," he said.
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