Between 500 and 1,800 students stormed the West University neighborhood Friday night in riots that continued for hours before local, county and state police were finally able to break up crowds at 3 a.m. Saturday morning, according to police reports and witness accounts.
Witnesses said dozens of people were injured and police said 35 were arrested after several parties near East 14th Avenue and Ferry Street spilled into the neighborhood and turned into a drunken mass of violence and vandalism. Dumpsters, furniture, street signs and a golf cart were set ablaze.
Eugene Police Department Public Information Officer Pam Olshanski estimated as many as 1,800 people took part in the melee, as a mob threw beer bottles and bricks, defied police orders, set fires and uprooted street signs.
The riot was the second scuffle in four months between students and police in the campus area. At a party that began May 31, police attempts to stop similar chaos failed, as officials were beaten back and mobs ruled the streets for hours until dozens of riot police arrived to break up the party.
Police first were notified of Friday’s disturbance at 11:30 p.m. but said they were not able to contain the riot for more than three hours. Witnesses said this delay allowed crowds to get completely out of hand.
“I never saw a cop until it was pretty much over,” said a University student who hosted one of the neighborhood parties that got out of hand. “I was trying to get everyone out of the front yard for quite some time.”
Olshanski said police were forced to wait several hours before a large enough group could be assembled to break up the riot.
“There’s absolutely no way you could take five to 10 officers into the area and have any effect on a crowd that size,” she said. “I was in the middle of it. …This was an incredibly violent crowd throwing bricks and bottles, even as firemen tried to put out the fires.”
A group began to flock into the streets just after 11 p.m. Friday when the student and his roommates asked an estimated 200 partygoers to leave.
At 11:30 p.m., witnesses said a man took off his shirt, placed it atop a street sign at the East 14th Avenue and Ferry Street roundabout and lit the clothing on fire.
People then grabbed mattresses, coffee tables and dressers from surrounding homes to feed the flames.

Signs from neighboring streets were ripped from the ground and used as propellants in the blaze, which witnesses estimate reached 30 feet high as the crowd chanted “Fuck the police” and “U-S-A.”
Nearby Dumpsters were wheeled from local apartment complexes and moved to the intersection. Onlookers participated in the havoc, jumping through the flames onto burning Dumpsters, scaling rooftops and climbing telephone poles.
As the crowd swelled, people reveled in the flames and students invited their friends to join the chaos.
“It was drunken immaturity,” University junior Kelly Nissl said. “I heard people calling on their cell phones, ‘Oh! Get over here.’”
The activity continued past 2 a.m., when nearly 40 police officers tried to break up the crowd.
“First (the police) just shot smoke bombs,” Lane Community College sophomore Josh Tift said. “Then people started rushing them, so they shot rubber bullets and tear gas.”
Witnesses said the party moved east as people tried to escape the tear gas and riot police. The crowd set fires that charred pavement and left a swath of Dumpsters ablaze.
“The cops just tackled us for walking down the road,” said Shannon Johnson, whose female friend was punched in the face by a drunken rioter.
Rioters continued on as police followed close behind, tackling students and ordering residents to go inside their homes.
“The cops were shoving and arresting random people,” Mike O’Brien said. “They were just riding up to people on their bikes and busting people with their sticks.
“It was bad. Very bad.”
Olshanski said police had to use every means necessary to break up the crowd but added that no live ammunition was discharged.
“If you’re given an order to disperse and you don’t leave, you’re subject to arrest,” she said.
The group reconvened east of police, where rioters overturned a golf cart at East 14th Avenue and Hilyard Street, poured gasoline on the vehicle and set it on fire. People emptied the contents of nearby recycling bins and trash cans and lit a large blaze as rioters danced around the flames.
Feet away, people uprooted street signs and set a small tree on fire. The group vandalized a phone box and set it ablaze, as well. An estimated 400 residents were left without phone or Internet service, according to a Qwest employee at the scene Saturday morning. Service is expected to be restored this evening.
At East 13th Avenue and Hilyard Street, Subway employee Brett Michel heard riot stories from customers throughout his evening shift. He stepped outside about 1:30 a.m. and watched as the riot continued toward the University.

“I told everyone we should think about closing shop because (the riot) was getting closer,” he said.
As police found their way to the scene, they announced over loudspeakers, “Get off the street, get off the sidewalks.”
Not everyone listened.
A videotape obtained by the Emerald showed one man repeatedly ignoring police requests to leave the scene and trying to put out the fire in the middle of Hilyard Street near East 14th Alley. Police shoved him in the back as they tried to clear the street.
“They fired off the tear gas, and everyone scattered,” Michel said.
The video showed people choking and coughing as the tear gas did its work.
“I just got fucking tear-gassed,” one man said.
Others reveled in the chaos.
“If I knew this was what Eugene was about, I would have been here a long time ago,” he said.
One young man hoped to keep the party going.
“Where’s the beer at?” he asked.
People walking in the neighborhood felt the effects of the gas from blocks away.
“We were just walking down the street at 14th and Alder – we felt the tear gas hit us and our eyes started to water,” University student Blake Gebhardt said.
A second round of tear gas discouraged further rioting, and people began to disperse. By 3 a.m., police had cleared the area and cordoned off streets as students watched from their windows.
Cleanup crews soon went to work, and the charred remains of the golf cart were scooped up by a bulldozing crew.
“I’ve been here for three years, and this is the first time I’ve cleaned up something like this,” one worker said.