State College Police are usually busy on Penn State football game day, but Saturday night, following Penn State’s win over Ohio State, proved exceptionally so. Early Sunday morning police said in a release that between 5,000 and 10,000 fans gathered in the streets to celebrate the victory, leading to some crimes and an injury.
Of the multiple crimes occurring from the large crowd, most resulted in citations, police said later in the day on Sunday. No criminal arrests were made on the spot overnight, though some charges are pending.
Despite the chaos, there was only one significant injury reported to police as a direct result of the disturbance. An individual was struck in the head with a bottle and taken to Mt. Nittany Medical Center for treatment, where Sgt. Todd Scholton said he likely received stitches. That case is still open.
Additionally, verbal altercation between two males got physical and one punched the other in the face, breaking his jaw.
Many who were at the rally noticed pepper spray was dispersed among the crowd, and some students who said they were doing nothing outlandish or illegal ended up with stinging eyes. Scholton said the pepper spray foggers used Saturday night are the normal method of crowd control because they allow officers to limit destruction to property and effect on other individuals without getting hands-on with the celebrators or anyone committing a crime.
Police largely reported cases of criminal mischief and disorderly conduct related to destruction and removal of street signs and light posts. The borough will evaluate the damage and its cost this week.
One police report noted that three street lights were damaged between the 300-500 block of South Garner Street and one light post entirely removed from the ground on Beaver Avenue. Three street signs also were removed from South Garner Street, at the intersections with Fairmount, Prospect and Hamilton avenues. No individual was charged in these and they were credited to the mass of people moving down the street.
Another call said that a male took down a stop sign and its post at the intersection of East Beaver Avenue and Locust Lane and will be charged because his actions were seen as having continued and contributed to the disorderly disturbance. In the same vein, police saw a man climb a light pole and attempt to remove the Locust Lane street sign. He also will be charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct because he continued to attempt to remove the sign.
Police saw, but were unable to identify another individual taking a street sign into the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house. The fraternity president spoke with police and the sign was returned and no one was charged.
A woman reported that an individual threw a Miller Lite can into her apartment window, shattering the glass. There were also a few small fires, and though mostly branches, police said one individual was cited for lighting a chair on fire and another for attempting to light a couch on fire.
Police have a “Large Crowd and Spontaneous Celebration” plan in place for every big event that takes place at Penn State or in State College, including all football games and other events like Arts Fest. Scholton said that officers are assigned locations during the game and then also a post after in case an event like Saturday night’s occurs. Police from State College, Penn State, and the nearby Commonwealth Campuses, as well as Pennsylvania State Police, have locations during the game and any department with sufficient “riot” safety equipment joins the forces downtown.
Scholton said the officers don’t have TVs to watch the game but when the score starts to get close or the game gets down to the final minutes, they are made aware of what’s going on and the captain and chief start to formulate a plan.
“You don’t know what’s going to happen in the game,” he said. Those who weren’t on the field for the post-game storming moved to their downtown posts and the mounted patrols that were at the stadium moved to Beaver Avenue as well.
Scholton noted the borough’s clean up efforts, which were swift. Street sweepers were out around 3 a.m. and much of the trash was quickly gone.
“We don’t want people thinking we don’t care about the town,” Scholton said. “This isn’t our first trip around with this stuff.”
