Monday, May 23, 2016

University Of Maryland Investigating Police Using Pepper Spray At Graduation Party

The school is reviewing footage from a party on Saturday that showed officers pepper spraying students, some of whom have accused the officers of targeting them based on race.

In a statement Sunday night, the University of Maryland Police Department (UMPD) said they were in the process of reviewing the 911 call as well as body camera footage from the officers involved in the incident.

On May 21, at around 1:46 a.m., police received a call about a "loud party" with a possible report of a fight inside the university's Courtyard apartments.

While heading to the apartment, police officers were informed by a group of people in the parking lot that "there were a lot of people inside" and that some were fighting, according to the police review of body camera footage from one officer. When asked if there were weapons involved, someone told the officers there was a baseball bat.

Police said they decided to shut down the party and repeatedly asked the students to leave, "thought not everyone complied."

Theo Scoulios, a DJ at the party, tweeted a video showing police officers pepper spraying a crowd of students in the hallway as they were being led outside the apartment.

Theo Scoulios, a DJ at the party, tweeted a video showing police officers pepper spraying a crowd of students in the hallway as they were being led outside the apartment.

Twitter: @_zensei

UMPD said that the pepper spray was used when an officer was "surrounded by a crowd in the hallway."

Students were heard screaming and coughing as they exited the apartment.

"[The officers] were being very forceful," Scoulios told Fox 5. "Using their arms to throw people, and then at that point they start to mace everybody. To me, it seemed as if it was a little — not a little — a lot excessive."

Scoulios did not immediately respond to BuzzFeed News' request for comment.


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