A sorority event that was designed to raise money for charity is now being overshadowed by the arrest of two Penn students.
College senior Zach Kerner and Wharton senior Matt Blaszko were both charged with simple assault, aggravated assault, resisting arrest and recklessly endangering another person. Kerner was also charged with disorderly conduct.
Alpha Chi Omega -- host of the annual Big Man on Campus event -- is currently under investigation by the Office of Sorority and Fraternity Affairs, though the focus of the inquiry is still unclear.
A small riot broke out Thursday night when police confronted a crowd of students who had congregated outside a venue near campus.
An estimated 400 to 600 people gathered outside World Cafe Live, where the party was hosted, when police arrived to disperse the crowd.
Witnesses are now accusing the police -- who they say were kicking students and hitting them with nightsticks in a field outside the venue, located at 3025 Walnut St. -- of excessive violence toward students.
Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said on Friday that based on the information she had, she believed that Penn Police acted appropriately. She did not comment on the actions of Philadelphia police -- who were also present -- except to say that "Penn Police are not [city police's] supervisors. We are not our brother's keeper."
The Philadelphia Police Department did not return calls for comment.
Rush said that Kerner punched a Penn Police officer in the chest, but it is unclear why Blaszko, who was detained by Philadelphia Police, was arrested.
The two spent more than 24 hours in holding cells at the 18th District headquarters at 55th and Pine streets and were released at about 2 a.m. Saturday morning on $2,000 bail.
It is unknown when they will have their preliminary hearings.
The Alpha Chi Omega leadership extended its apologies and will provide further information later this week, according to a statement sent to undergraduates by Undergraduate Assembly Chairwoman Rachel Fersh and Senior Class Board President Pierre Gooding.
Fersh, Gooding and several other student leaders met with University and police officials for nearly three hours Friday evening to discuss the situation.
The e-mail statement encouraged students to provide witness accounts to police and outlined how to file direct complaints.
As of yesterday evening, no complaints had been filed, Rush said.
However, several students said they intend to complain.
"Most of these kids were scared just like anyone else, just trying to leave, and the police then made it so much worse, got so out of control. It wasn't chaotic until they came and started just running around like crazy making everyone go insane," College sophomore Michelle Alpert said. "I've never seen anything like this."
On Thursday, students began arriving at World Cafe Live at about 10 p.m., and about 100 people were initially allowed into the venue. The doors were then closed to allow attendees of an earlier event to leave. Students were asked to move from the main entrance on Walnut Street to a side entrance on 31st Street below the Walnut Street Bridge, causing some crowding and confusion.
At 10:25 p.m., an employee of the venue called the Penn Police Department, reporting a problem with crowd control. Students were repeatedly asked to form a line and step away from the door.
"Half of them were peaceful. The other half were causing trouble," Penn Police Sgt. Joe Risoli said on the scene Thursday. He added that the "unruly" crowd was pushing and shoving and refusing to back away from the doors when asked by police and bouncers to disperse.
Several students said that the crowd was under control until police arrived and later began taking more aggressive measures.
"If I tried to move, I would have knocked 20 people down," said Alpert, who was at the front of the line. "It's not like people were not being cooperative, it's just that we really couldn't move."
Students say that is when a World Cafe Live bouncer became violent.
"All of a sudden, this huge security guard ... he just flipped out. You just saw something in him spark, and he went crazy," said Alpert, who was within arm's length of the bouncer. She and several other witnesses were unaware of any specific comment or action that might have provoked him.
The bouncer then allegedly began pushing people in the crowd, screaming expletives at them.
The bouncer could not be reached for comment. Though he was detained by police, he was not charged and officials would not release his name. World Cafe Live officials would not release his name, either.
Police soon pinned the bouncer down, but, Rush said, he was not arrested.
Police announced that the event had been canceled and asked students to leave. Due to the large mass of people, an "assist officer" call went out over the police radio, calling all units in the district to help disperse the crowd. Some students estimated that between Penn Police and Philadelphia Police, there were as many as 70 to 80 officers on the scene at one point and a helicopter was flying overhead.
As students began to leave, the violence escalated.
Witnesses say they saw both male and female students pushed, beaten with nightsticks and kicked by police as they were leaving.
Several students said that many of these incidents were unprovoked and that some officers refused to give out their badge numbers when asked.
