A typical rambunctious college get-together grew into a massive block party Saturday that 15 police officers and a SWAT vehicle were forced to break up using tear gas and pepper spray.
Known as a something of a party school, Colorado State University is likely no stranger to tamer soirees of 50 or so beer-swilling students.
So nothing seemed out of the ordinary when, at around 8:30pm on April 27, Fort Collins, Colorado police showed up to a party of that size to address a noise complaint.
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Dangerous: A party at Colorado State University, pictured, that began with 50 students soon swelled to 800 before police stepped in with tear gas
Tear Gas and flashbangs break up CSU party
Police left, but when they came back things had taken a turn.
Though only two hours had passed, when cops came back at 11pm, the group had swelled to a full-on block party with anywhere from 300 to 800 wild students.
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Revelers representing a row of six or seven condominiums, just a few blocks from CSU’s campus, yelled ‘F*** the police!’ and ‘Go CSU.’
Eyewitnesses told the CSU college paper the Rocky Mountain Collegian that people were hanging from streetlights, climbing onto house roofs and even the roof of one car that they caused to collapse.
‘I’d call that a riot,’ Ft. Collins police Lt. Russell Reed told the Collegian. ‘When our officers have to use gas to get themselves out of a situation because of the immaturity of the crowd… yeah, that’s a riot.
As police tried to break up what had become dangerous situation, some students’ verbal assaults became physical.
Wild: One student took to Twitter to document the wild party that cops ended with riot gear after it swelled to 800 with the help of social media
Officers were hit by beer bottles hurled through the air and that’s when they decided to fire cans of tear gas into the crowd.
‘I got gassed so bad,’ said senior Max Firth. ‘I couldn’t see, I couldn’t breathe. I just started running away.’
One student sporting a head wound even reported getting hit directly by a tear gas canister.
Ft. Collins police spokeswoman Rita Davis said in a release that three officers incurred minor injuries and were transported to a hospital for treatment.
Students said the party got so unwieldy after news of it spread through social media sites like Facebook.
Lt. Reed said not enough officers were on hand to make any arrests from the huge crowd, but that some of his men recorded the unfortunate incident and plan to use footage to make arrests in the future.
Reed said charges could include inciting destruction of life or property, a class six felony with a minimum sentence of a year in jail, and inciting a riot.
Picturesque: The ugly scene took place just blocks from Colorado State University's idyllic Rocky Mountain campus