Rumors circulating around campus last week about a fight breaking out between Hurricane Ike evacuees and A&M-Commerce students at the Memorial Student Center have turned out to be false.
Lt. Jason Bone, crime information officer for the University Police Department said a verbal altercation did occur between evacuees and students, but there was no physical incident.
“Officers were called and spoke with individuals on both sides,” Bone said. “From all indications one of our students was upset that one of the evacuees were looking at his girlfriend.”
Aside from the verbal altercation at the MSC there was a report of an incident at Smith Hall.
According to Bone, a small crowd of students had gathered by Smith when a bus carrying evacuees drove by and supposed gang signs were thrown in the air by both groups.
Bone said he was at Berry Hall at the time of the incident but a few women ran inside the lobby and told him police were needed outside.
“They were pointing at a group of students,” he said. “I noticed one of them had removed his shirt and was making aggressive gestures back towards the evacuees who were unloading from the bus.”
Bone then called UPD officers over to speak with the student and directed others to speak with the evacuees.
“From what we could determine, one group or the other was trying to get to the other side to meet at Taco Bell for a fight,” he said.
Although police were on hand, Bone said they will probably never know what really happened.
“Our students were not truthful, nor were the males on the evacuee side,” he said. “The only people that would tell us anything were some ladies that were on the bus.”
There was also an incident at Wal-Mart according to Bone, but the Commerce Police Department handled that issue.
“One day an adult female was arrested for shoplifting and a juvenile female was cited for theft under $50,” he said.
Officers were present with the evacuees in the cafeteria from that point on according to Bone, and two more were stationed at Berry 24 hours a day, but that was not a change from how many people usually guard the building.
There was only one recordable incident and that was of a man, Neiman Flournoy, who was issued a Criminal Trespass letter from the UPD. Aside from this incident no arrests were made and there was no further police intervention.