A 20-year old male was left bleeding and unconscious after a fight involving more than 50 people broke out in the West University area early Sunday morning, according to Eugene Police Department Public Information Director Melinda Kletzok.
Kletzok said the fight occurred near 14th Avenue and Hilyard Street, and police received several calls from people who reported that more than 100 people were at the scene. Medics responded to two injuries at the scene and the unconscious man was taken to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. The Emerald could not confirm the man’s identity.
When officers arrived, Kletzok said most people involved in the fight fled the scene and no arrests were made. She also said the victims did not desire any prosecution, and police received no descriptions of any of the suspects.
Kletzok said officers responded to several fights afterward, including one involving about 12 people on 17th Avenue and Patterson Street, which the officers said were likely related to the larger fight on Hilyard.
University senior Dina Kupfer, who lives near the location of the fight, said more than 150 people were all over the area. “It was just huge chaos,” she said. “You could smell alcohol in the area from, like, 100 feet away.”
Kupfer said about nine police cars, a fire truck and ambulance responded to the scene.
She also said she was worried about a man on the ground who she said paramedics worked on before taking him away on a stretcher.
“It’s really an eerie feeling knowing that people can get so belligerent; that someone can hurt someone else,” she said. “It’s scary that people can get that out of control.”
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