Three SWAT officers were injured on Saturday while breaking up a massive gathering near the University of Colorado Boulder campus, according to officials.
In a statement Saturday evening, the university said police were responding to a large party, saying “people in the area could be subject to arrest and CU sanctions.”
The officers were struck with bricks and rocks and suffered minor injuries, the Boulder Police Department said in a tweet. The department said they are reviewing body camera footage and social media to identify those involved in “damaging property and assaulting first responders.”
Michael Dougherty, the Boulder County District Attorney, said in a statement Sunday that his office is working with the police to “determine the identities of the people who damaged private property and assaulted first responders because they should be held fully responsible for their outrageous actions.”
SWAT was called in to coordinate a safe response to the situation, estimating as many as 1,000 people attended the gathering, a police spokesperson told NBC News affiliate.
Among the hundreds of attendees, many weren’t wearing masks and no social distancing was in place, an NBC News affiliate reporter who was at the scene said. Videos from the party showed streets covered with shattered glass and debris and at least one destroyed car.
Isabella Sackheim, a student, said her car was tipped over by the crowd, damaging the vehicle’s rear bumper and shattering the back windshield.
“Definitely pretty crazy … I didn’t believe it at first, but yeah, really crazy,” Sackheim told NBC News affiliate Sunday.
The university said the gathering was “unacceptable and irresponsible” and will not tolerate students “engaging in acts of violence or damaging property.”
“Any student who is found responsible for having engaged in acts of violence toward the law enforcement or other first responders will be removed from CU Boulder and not readmitted,” the university said in a statement.
