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PHOTO: Baristanet.com
Two dozen people were taken to area hospitals — all of them between 18 and 24 years old — mostly due to intoxication, police said.
Those arrested included a 19-year-old West Caldwell man who police said jumped on a patrolman’s back, injuring the officer’s wrist, and a Secaucus man, also 19, who they said assaulted another concert-goer on the street.
For the full story, with photos, video and a complete statement from police, go to:
Huge mob in Montclair after police shut Wellmount concert
Police from nearly a dozen departments quickly converged on the scene once things got out of hand.
“Several large crowds of intoxicated individuals began shoving their way to the front of the line, causing several people to fall over the barricades, resulting in multiple people being injured,”
Montclair police said this morning.“Based upon the crowd losing control and the number of already intoxicated individuals in the area, police decided that for the safety of all involved, the event would be cancelled.
“As police attempted to disperse the group, many individuals became disorderly and began to fight with the police.”
“Sources have referred to this as a rave,” reported Baristanet’s Debbie Galant, who was at the incident, which erupted around 9 o’clock.
Galant reported:
“100s of kids – scantily dressed – out on Seymour — some climbing up scaffolding and yelling.
“In addition to Montclair, police officers from Bloomfield, Nutley, Fairfield, Verona and Belleville were on the scene.”
The sold-out event was billed as: “The world’s largest blacklight party…. an
absolute orgy of sound and lights for all your senses.”
Several people were found “stumbling or having difficulty in standing,” Montclair police said this morning.
“Upon arriving, police saw a crowd of upwards of twenty-five hundred people,” they said in a statement. “While monitoring the crowd, police had dispatch notify surrounding agencies that mutual aid may be needed, due to the size of the crowd, which had become unruly while waiting to gain entry to the theater.”
The complete statement (on Baristanet.com) also notes that a 22-year-old Bedminster woman was checked by emergency medical workers after claiming she’d been bitten on the calf during the melee.
At one point, it says, police struggled through the crowd to get to a 19-year-old South Amboy woman who’d passed out near a fence.
“The crowd was pressed against her and stepping on her,” the statement says. “Police were able to carry the female to an ambulance,” and she was taken to the hospital.
Police arrested two 20-year-old men from Fairview, identified as Louis Garcia and Ernest Pereira IV.
Garcia was released on charges of aggravated assault on police and resisting arrest. Bail was set for Pereira, who was charged with spitting at a police officer, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
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