Police arrest 35 in fiery riot.

Byline: JACK MORAN The Register-Guard

Thirty-five people were arrested early Saturday during a campus-area riot in which gasoline was used to light fires that were then stoked with signs, furniture and even a golf cart.

After repeatedly ordering the crowd of mostly young people to disperse, officers from Eugene police and the Lane County sheriff's office used tear gas and rubber bullets to quell the riot.

Six women and 28 men were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and interfering with police, Eugene police spokeswoman Pam Olshanski said. Another man was jailed on charges of attempted theft and assault after he allegedly attacked an officer and tried to take his gun from his holster, Olshanski said.

Residents first called police just after 11 p.m., telling dispatchers that "several hundred" people were flooding the streets at the intersection of East 14th Avenue and Ferry Street, Olshanski said. But by 12:45 a.m., when about 40 officers stepped in to break up the crowd, the gathering had swelled to about 1,500 people.

Olshanski said she didn't know how many of the rioters were students attending the University of Oregon, which begins its fall term on Monday. She said, however, that "there were certainly a lot of young people involved in the riot."

Many residents of the west university neighborhood, dubbed "the college ghetto" by 14th Avenue resident Annie Dimond, were startled by the scene.

"All of a sudden everybody came rushing into the street," said Dimond, 22, who called police about 11:30 p.m. to report that fires were being set in the street. "It sounded like a crowd cheering at a football game at Autzen.

"There's things going on all over the world to protest about, but this was just about being drunk and stupid."

Dimond, speaking late Saturday morning on her front porch, said that when officers first arrived, they just watched as revelers ripped out street signs and threw them into a bonfire set in a traffic-circle planter at 14th and Ferry.

`I told them I was frightened for my safety, but they said, `We're outnumbered,` ' Dimond recalled.

Olshanski said "several units" of Eugene officers responded to the calls immediately and observed the riot while waiting for help to arrive.

"They didn't intervene," Olshanski said. "The officers could see the fire and the large crowd there, but they're not stupid. They took an observer position and called in the Crowd Control Team" of Eugene police officers and sheriff's deputies.

The first officers to respond to the riot videotaped the scene, and further arrests could be made as a result, Olshanski said.

"Without a doubt, they'll take steps to identify all those who are identifiable on the tape," she said. "This is not the end of the arrests."

Some rioters carried gas cans as they moved through the crowd and set additional fires. Others threw clothes, furniture and other debris onto the largest fire at 14th and Ferry.

Olshanski said officers witnessed people actually throwing themselves into the flames that reached up to 20 feet high, catching their clothes on fire.

"They jumped right into the fire and had other people stomp them out," Olshanski said. "There was one fire being set after another, and people were using anything they could find and throwing it into the flames. There was debris everywhere."

At one point, a man drove a golf cart into the flames as others continued to throw debris into the blaze.

Six additional fires were set at other intersections as rioters moved west along 14th and 15th avenues. Olshanski said that because some people carried gas cans during the uproar, officers diverted the crowd away from campus and Sacred Heart Medical Center, Olshanski said.

Ferry Street resident Kellen Terrett, 19, a UO sophomore, said things "got scary" at 14th and Ferry about 1 a.m.

"The flames kept getting bigger and bigger and it kept getting rowdier and rowdier," he said. "For a while there, it didn't seem like it would ever stop growing. You wouldn't expect 40 or 50 cops to be able to stop something like that."

Terrett helped put out a trash bin fire in an alley next to his home, and at one point tear gas "came billowing into the house."

Olshanski confirmed that beginning about 1 a.m., officers fired multiple canisters of tear gas as well as rubber bullets in order to break up the crowds.

Officers were continually pelted with debris as they moved into the crowd. Eugene firefighters, escorted by police, also had to dodge bottles, bricks and rocks as they worked to extinguish the fires, Olshanski said.

Police managed to clear the streets of all rioters by 3 a.m., but officers stayed on the scene until about 5 a.m. The Oregon State Police's Mobile Response Team arrived to help with extra patrols after most people had left the area.

Springfield police helped cover the rest of Eugene while officers concentrated on shutting down the riot, Olshanski said.

Eugene Sgt. Derel Schulz said police were aware that the weekend would include "more gatherings than usual" because students are returning to town, but the riot caught them by surprise.

"We didn't have any indication there would be any kind of problems," Schulz said. "It was a much bigger deal than the last one."

The last one was on May 31, when about 500 people gathered in the streets just west of campus and hurled bottles and rocks at officers who showed up to end the disturbance. In that incident, eight officers suffered minor injuries and windows in three patrol cars were smashed out. Police arrested 11 people.

Schulz said numerous police cars were dented by thrown items on Saturday, but no officers were injured.

Anne Leavitt, the UO's associate vice president for student affairs, said school officials were disappointed by the riot, especially considering that it came so soon after the May melee.

"We're very distressed and startled to know that there are people in the community who would return to that after the destruction caused last May," Leavitt said. "We consider this behavior dangerous and irresponsible and hope people don't have a sense that this is how you behave here. We don't want these types of events to characterize our weekends."

Leavitt said university officials will do what they can to work with involved "citizen-scholars" and let them know what is expected of students who attend the UO. The university's conduct code does not allow administrators to punish students for such behavior that takes place off campus.

All those arrested were taken to the Lane County Jail.

Police charged Christopher Edward Gillis, 26, with first-degree attempted theft, first-degree attempted assault, assault on a police officer, resisting arrest and interfering with police. He is accused of attacking an officer from behind near the corner of 14th Avenue and Alder Street and trying to take his weapon, Olshanski said.

Police didn't release the names of the 34 people charged with less serious crimes. Schulz said his department wasn't adequately staffed on Saturday to compile a list of all those arrested.

CAPTION(S):

Rioters feed a fire with furniture and debris late Friday in the intersection of 14th Avenue and Ferry Street in Eugene. The riot lasted into the morning. "There's things going on all over the world to protest about, but this was just about being drunk and stupid." ANNIE DIMOND 14th Avenue resident