The kick-off party for the Pan-Afrikan Festival was cut short when a fight broke out late Saturday night, according to Campus Police Capt. Jon Barnwell.
The event was held in the Talley Student Center, and Barnwell said after a fight began, police ended the party but were not able to detain those who started it.
“The folks involved in the fight left before they could be detained,” he said.
Police shut down the party, and it took about 25 minutes to clear everyone out, Barnwell said. Campus Police used the assistance of numerous on-duty officers from the Wake County Police Department and the Raleigh Police Department.
Marcus Alexander, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. which was helping organize the event, said he was not able to see too much of what happened.
“I didn’t see the fight,” Alexander, a senior in industrial engineering, said. “Everybody ran and [the police] broke it up.”
Mike Ceparano, a freshman in engineering, said he did not attend the party but witnessed some problems as the party-goers spilled onto Cates Avenue.
According to Ceparano, he heard that a fight had occured, and was walking to Talley to make sure some friends were safe.
“I started walking toward Talley, and there were a lot of people walking [in the direction of] the Student Health Center kind of fast,” he said. “I got toward Talley and saw a bunch of cops trying to direct traffic, and people trying to leave and get out of there.”
After Ceparano made it back to his car on Cates Avenue, he said police began moving toward a large group of students in front of Owen Hall.
“There were about eight cops walking at once and they all had flashlights,” he said.
After shining their lights down the street, the policemen ran down the street and tackled at least one person in the group, he said.
Ceparano said he could not see what happened afterward, but police cleared out minutes later.