Several police officers were injured and 11 people were arrested after a block party spilled into the streets late Friday and escalated into a riot, which left a two-block stretch of Patterson Street littered with broken glass, tipped trash cans and uprooted street signs.
The first police officers arrived at 11:30 p.m. and were quickly overwhelmed by angry partygoers, who threw bottles and rocks at patrol cars, according to police and area residents.
“They were throwing stuff directly at the cops,” said D.J. Fuller, a University junior who lives at 17th Avenue and Patterson Street, where the riot occurred.
Fuller said one officer backed his patrol car north down Patterson Street and waited for reinforcements while rioters, emboldened by the retreat, gathered outside.
But by the time officers arrived with riot gear, they faced as many as 500 student-age people in the streets.
“Someone yelled that the cops were coming, and
everybody ran out to the middle of the street,” said Alicia Spitzer, a freshman at Lane Community College.
Spitzer said people had been drinking heavily at a party in a nearby apartment building.
“Every single room was open, and there were kegs in every other room,” she said.

Rioters uprooted street signs, lighted bonfires and hurled insults and bottles at police until officers fired tear gas into the crowd, according to police reports.
“Many officers, myself included, were hit with bottles,” Eugene Police Department Lt. Ron Roberts said early Saturday morning.
After the tear gas dissipated, more than 100 people returned to the scene, gathered at street corners and on balconies and continued to jeer police and throw debris until 2 a.m., when police regained control of the area.
By about 1:30 a.m., at least 40 officers from Eugene, Springfield, Coburg and state police agencies were walking through the area telling people to leave the streets or risk arrest. Crushed cans and broken glass crunched beneath their boots as smoke from a fire drifted south along Patterson Street.
A jet of water flowed into the street from a broken water facet, and broken strands of police crime-scene tape lay scattered throughout the area.
Police report that seven officers were injured, though none were hospitalized, three patrol cars sustained broken windows and 11 student-age people were arrested and charged with riot-related offenses. The student directory lists six of the 11 people arrested as University students.
Despite the violence, the mood among many of the student-age people in the area seemed almost jubilant. At about 1 a.m., dozens of people shouted support for their favorite sports teams and derided their least favorite, chanting “Go Ducks” and “Fuck the Lakers.”
Several people posed for photographs with an advancing cordon of riot police in the background.
Friday’s melee was the first since the 1997 and 1998 Halloween riots, which spurred the EPD’s zero-tolerance policy against alcohol violations and the creation of a Party Patrol, a team of officers working overtime during weekends to bust parties and write alcohol citations.

Since then, budget restraints ended the party patrol, and police scaled back patrols in the University area.
“It’s really unfortunate that this is where we are after having three successful seasons,” Roberts said when the riot had ended.
EPD officer Pete Aguilar, who is assigned to the University area, said he was uncertain if the riot will compel police to revise party enforcement policies. Police heavily patrolled the neighborhoods surrounding the University on Saturday in anticipation of another riot, but the night was relatively uneventful.
“This may have just been a fluke, a set of circumstances that happened at one time,” Aguilar said.
A handful of people at the riot disagreed and said the melee was a symptom of frustration with police.
“They just wanted to take over our party,” Bradley Sparks, a Lane Community College freshman, said while his nose ran and eyes watered from exposure to tear gas. He was later arrested and charged with rioting, theft and disorderly conduct.
At the sidelines of the riot, area residents watched in disbelief as their neighborhood transformed into a battleground.
Kate Cody, a University junior who watched much of the riot from her friend’s porch, said organizers of the party in the apartment building notified neighbors of the upcoming gathering.
“I’d heard about this party for a while,” she said. “Who would of thought it could turn out like this?”
Daniel Cathey, a 28-year-old Symantec employee who lives near the scene of the riot, stood by parked cars in his driveway with a broomstick in his hands while mobs of people roamed the street and police continued to pour into the area.
His roommate, Ted Greenlee, a 38-year-old Symantec employee, also watched the riot from his driveway and said he was standing outside “protecting (their) property from idiots.”
Further north on Patterson Street, Catherine Faber, 38, was surprised by the riot while she walked from her nearby house to visit a friend at Sacred Heart Medical Center. She pulled a downed street sign from the middle of the an intersection to the sidewalk as she walked.
“I think they’re idiots,” she said while angry people, still coughing from tear gas exposure, walked around her. “I think they’ve temporarily gotten the idea that they’re invincible.”

The following people were arrested Friday night on charges relating to the riot:

Matthew Charles Baum, 19, of Eugene, charged with disorderly conduct and noise disturbance
Justin Reilly Cooley, 21, hometown unknown, charged with disorderly conduct, criminal mischief and interfering with a police officer
Rocky Levi Duffey, 19, of Eugene, charged with disorderly conduct
Daniel Lawrence Faccinetti, 19, of Eugene, charged with disorderly conduct
Megan Michael Glenn, 18, hometown unknown, charged with disorderly conduct and interfering with a police officer
Andrew William Jordan, 22, of Eugene, charged with disorderly conduct and interfering with a police officer
Brady Patrick Lane, 21, of Eugene, charged with riot and disorderly conduct
Cameron Lee Levin, 19, hometown unknown, charged with harassment and disorderly conduct
Cody Jacob Lincoln, 21, of Oakridge, charged with disorderly conduct and interfering with a police officer
Travis Ryan Murphy, 23, of Eugene, charged with disorderly conduct
Bradley Lance Sparks, 19, of Springfield, charged with riot, theft and disorderly conduct