Posted on 09/03/2003 9:06:18 AM PDT by Moose4
More deputies will be at Lexington County high school football games after what police said was a near riot involving 250 young people Friday at Irmo High School's stadium.
Officers had to draw their guns, but no shots were fired. Three deputies were hurt. Four teenagers and two adults were arrested, one of whom had gang ties, police said.
The police report described the disturbance as "a life or death situation."
Sheriff James Metts said Monday he doesn't recall a school disturbance on this scale in his 38 years of law enforcement in Lexington County.
Two dozen officers eventually were needed to control the crowd. Some had to draw their weapons and order the crowd back after some people tried to grab the guns from deputies' holsters.
One deputy had to remove the ammunition clip from his .357 handgun to keep the crowd from getting his loaded weapon.
One deputy suffered a broken thumb, the others had a sprained knee and ankle.
Metts said if deputies hadn't taken control, the incident could have escalated at the packed game between archrivals Irmo and Dutch Fork high schools.
"I can easily say that we will have more deputies at football games," the sheriff said Monday.
Lexington/Richland 5 superintendent Dennis McMahon said the district will find ways "to make sure it doesn't happen again." McMahon, who has been criticized by members of his school board, did not elaborate.
Metts and McMahon are to meet later this week to discuss solutions.
Officers are investigating what caused the disturbance, but Metts said no more arrests are expected.
Reports from deputies at the scene describe several signs the melee was gang related. One group "was clearly marked in...Nation/Bloods clothing," the report said.
On a recorded phone message for parents, Irmo High school resource officer Steve Bumgardner said, "We do believe it to be gang related."
Metts said he's not ready to blame the disturbance on gang rivalries. "There's no doubt about it, there were people in the crowd that wore gang colors. I can't say that it was specifically a gang incident. I can't say that it wasn't."
The superintendent acknowledge that gangs are at all three of the district's high schools.
Irmo principal Gerald Witt said his school is no more immune than others in metropolitan Columbia. "We have to deal with gang behavior. We've been very open in talking about this issue."
However, Irmo High events are "a very safe environment," he said.
First-term school board member Jan Hammond said she has been frustrated in her attempts to get the school safety issue before the board. "We can't let things go on like they have been."
Metts acknowledges a rising gang problem in the county, but said Friday's disturbance was "an isolated situation."
The near riot began when William Jamel Orange, 28, of 231 Goldstone Drive, Columbia, refused to comply when a deputy ordered a rowdy group to leave school grounds, police said.
Orange - a former Irmo student who Metts said is a "known gang member" - had been banned from the school grounds last year for taking Bumgardner's baton.
Pockets of people were yelling and cursing, mostly under the bleachers, when Orange grabbed a deputy around the neck and shoulders, police said.
As they struggled, it "caused a large-scale invasion of people to come toward the arresting officers," the report states.
Orange is charged with inciting a riot, resisting arrest, trespassing after a notice and disturbing schools, sheriff's spokesman John Allard said. Orange was in the county jail on $31,000 bail.
Also charged is Troy Idavious Shepherd, 18, of 9 Forestgate Court, Columbia. Shepherd, who Metts said has no known gang ties, is charged with disorderly conduct.
Two juveniles who were arrested are Columbia High School students, and one is a Dutch Fork student, Allard said. He did not know the school affiliation of a fourth juvenile who was charged.
Another juvenile, an Irmo student, was charged with assaulting a teenage girl during the game, but was not directly involved in the disturbance, the spokesman said.
The Sheriff's Department had no notice trouble was brewing Friday, Metts said.
Yet, the officer who wrote the police report, Barry Sowards, said, "...the Lexington Five school district had requested a law enforcement (presence) because of gang activity/fights and drugs and alcohol use."
Allard said Sowards was referring to ongoing problems at Irmo High and other Lexington County high schools.
"We know that there are gang members who attend some school events at Irmo High School," Allard said. "It's not just Irmo High School. It's schools across the county.
"It's unfortunately part of life in high school in 2003."
1) This happened on Friday night and only popped up in the news today. You'd think 200+ people throwing down with two dozen deputies--with guns drawn--would have made the news a little earlier than four days after the fact.
2) The high school involved is one of the regional sports powers around here, a large suburban high school. I don't know what the school's racial makeup is, but I know the area is predominantly white and middle-class, and has never seemed much like fertile ground for gangs like the Bloods.
3) If this story isn't exaggerated, then the situation could have been much, much worse.
}:-)4
Apparently not.
If the article hadnt clarified it, I would have thought this guy was a high schooler at age 28. Probably voted for Clinton at least once however.
I agree. When something simular happened in Rock Hill last year it was all over the news within hours. Though what happened in Rock Hill was not as serious at this seems to be, it was on the field. That might be the differance.
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