As excited fans lit fireworks off of rooftops and danced in the streets after the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl Sunday night, what was supposed to be a celebration soon turned to destruction.
Three Northeastern students were arrested on the scene and the Northeastern University Police Department expects more arrests to follow.
Jason Shepherd, 20; Hamid D. Refai, 20; and Jonathan Diffehbach, 22, were charged with malicious destruction of property, Suffolk County District Attorney spokesman David Procopio said. Shepherd was observed allegedly smashing a car window on Symphony Road. The other two students were observed jumping on a red Toyota Tercel, the first car to be flipped on Sunday evening.
The arrests were made on Symphony Road, where five more cars were overturned and many more were damaged, NUPD Associate Director of Public Safety James Ferrier said.
NUPD and the Boston Police Departmant both positioned extra officers in the area of Hemenway Street Sunday night, one of the areas in the city cited for having large crowds after athletic events, Ferrier said.
Boston Police were also stationed in Allston/Brighton and in Kenmore Square, where fans took to the streets as well.
Despite property damage and the hit-and-run that killed James D. Grabowski, 21, of West Newbury, and injured three others, Ferrier said he was pleased with the celebration and the way the police handled the crowds.
“I think the Hemenway Street crowd, that was somewhere near a couple thousand people at its peak, had a very orderly celebration. There was virtually no vandalism on Hemenway Street,” Ferrier said.
The BPD had previously decided to shut down Hemenway Street after the game. They posted signs warning drivers not to stop or park on the road and cleared the street of remaining cars early Sunday morning to “remove the targets,” Ferrier said, and give fans a larger space to fill.
Still, in an effort to prevent students from taking their celebration outside, NUPD officers were positioned in residence halls’ screening rooms to watch the game with the residents and encourage them to stay inside after.
In Smith Hall, this became impossible, Ferrier said, when a fire alarm was pulled just as the game ended.
As students flooded the streets from all over campus, officers remained on the perimeter and in their stationed areas. Despite the report of minor incidents, they knew it was more important that they stick with the plan of attack, Ferrier said.
“I was on Symphony around midnight and the first thing I saw were all the guys on the red, flipped car opening all the doors and pulling out the stereo,” said Rebecca Heimlick, a freshman theater major. “It was senseless destruction. I saw 10 guys with a long metal pipe, maybe 12 feet long, running it through cars from windshield to windshield. Then they would take baseball bats, snow shovels and a tennis racket and smash the windows.”
At one point, Ferrier said, a student approached an NUPD officer to tell him that he had just been assaulted. The officer observed the student was not badly injured, and let the incident go, despite the student’s protests. Only a minute later, the same officer was informed of the would-be fatal accident, and he left his post.
Ferrier said allowing the minor incidents of assault and vandalism to ensue is something “we can all be second guessed for,” but said the officer was correct in his decision.
“I’m sorry, but that one got away,” he said.
With the use of surveillance videos, news station tapes and personal videos from residents, the NUPD hopes to identify more students involved in the damaging incidents and take action.
Residential Life staff was also equipped with cameras outside residence halls and on the surrounding streets. The ResLife staff will also help to review the tapes and identify students, said Ed Klotzbier, vice president for student affairs.
“It’s a really good tool for us. We’ve used it before and it has worked quite successfully,” Klotzbier said.
The students who are identified in the tapes will be dealt with appropriately, Ferrier said, both by the university and the Boston Police. The three students who were already arrested have been referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution (OSCCR) and their cases will be reviewed.
“I can say that we do take this extremely seriously and are very concerned about this behavior,” said OSCCR Director William Fischer.
He said, in regards to the students who were arrested and others identified as participating in endangering behavior, destruction of property, rioting, or other offenses, that “swift action will be taken resulting in separation from the university.”
Separation from the university can range anywhere from suspension to expulsion, Fischer said, and the final decision would be left to the Judicial Review Board.
“It’s fun at first, even the police laugh at first, but it will always get out of control,” said Christine Hughes, a freshman music industry major. “People like to get drunk and destructive and like to see how far they can push the police before they tear gas them.”
The three students who were arrested were arraigned in Roxbury District Court Monday and released on their own recognizance. They will return to court for a pretrial hearing some time next month, Procopio said.
-News correspondent Bobby Hankinson
contributed to this report
