Brawl leads to 3 arrests

Bloomington Police officers arrested three students after a fight in a parking lot of the Varsity Villas community early Saturday morning, as about 150 people ran from the scene, according to a BPD report.\nSophomore Bartley Arnold, 19, and freshman Jerad Money, 20, were arrested and charged with illegal consumption of alcohol. Sophomore Jason Lee, 20, was also arrested and charged with resisting law enforcement, illegal consumption and providing false information. No one was charged with assault.\nAccording to the report, the throng that was gathered in the parking lot scattered as officers arrived. Lee, with a torn shirt and blood-stained pants, was spotted by Officer Scott Reynolds and appeared to have been involved in the fight.\n"The officer asked Lee to speak to him, and he began running," said Detective Sgt. David Drake, citing the report. "Then as he was running up some steps, he ran into a large crowd of people and fell down."\nAt that point, Reynolds grabbed Lee by his belt and tackled him to the ground, according to the report.\nBut Lee said his pants were bloodied because he broke up the fight just before police arrived. He said Reynolds told him to freeze, and he became frightened and fled.\n"I just felt like I was going to get in trouble anyway," Lee said. "I had blood on my pants. Whatever I would have said to him, he wouldn't have believed me."\nEyewitnesses said the fight, which occurred around 1 a.m. Saturday, broke out when one man provoked another in the Varsity Villas flats.\n"I looked out my window, and someone yelled 'I'm going to hit you in the nose,'" said sophomore Ryan Payne. "The guy who got hit got the other guy on the ground and started stomping his ribs."\nThe fight then subsided when friends of both combatants dragged them away, several eyewitnesses said. No one questioned said they knew the identity of those involved in the fight. \nLee said he ran into the parking lot to pull one of the fighters away just before police showed up. Then as he was fleeing, he said, Reynolds was being harassed by those still in the parking lot.\n"When I was running, people were yelling 'pig' at him," he said. "I think that pissed him off and gave him an incentive to catch me."\nDrake said though the Villas, which are located north of campus at Dunn Street and Varsity Lane, have historically been a point of police concern, the residents are not considered any more troublesome than other students in Bloomington.\n"That's just one of the biggest concentrations of IU students off campus," he said. "Naturally it's going to be a hot-spot for parties and activity."\nHe also said the Villas "used to be a lot worse than they are now."\n"There are a lot parties," he said. "We get a lot of calls, but not as many as we used to."\nAccording to an April 27 article in the Indiana Daily Student, police entered the Villas in riot gear to quell Little 500 party-goers.\n"Probably the highest damage and potential for damage was at Varsity Villas where there were tipped over cars, and people were setting fire to them," IU Police Department Lt. Jerry Minger said in the article.\n-- Contact senior writer Rick Newkirk at renewkir@indiana.edu.