Saturday, April 14
At around 10:45 p.m., Michael Gibbs, 25, of Springfield was arrested on a warrant charge. Two officers on duty at Soulfest in the Mullins Center recognized Gibbs as someone who had been issued a trespass in the past, so they approached him. They struck up a conversation with him about the trespass order, but he claimed it had expired. According to University of Massachusetts Interim Police Chief Patrick Archbald, trespass orders expire after two years of the issued date. After checking with the dispatcher at the station, the officers were notified that the trespass had indeed expired, but that the Eastern Hampshire District Court had a warrant for Gibbs’ arrest, so the officers placed him into custody. His trespass order was then reinstated for another two years.
Sunday, April 15
At around 12:15 a.m., James Artey, 18, of Worcester was arrested for disorderly conduct, assault and battery, resisting arrest, and assault and battery on a police officer. The suspect, who was an attendee at Soulfest, had jumped over a barricade in the Mullins Center and began to fight with two event staff members backstage, striking one in the nose with his elbow. When officers arrived at the scene to arrest Artey, he resisted arrest, and he began to fight one of the officers. Artey punched the officer in the chest and then bit him twice, breaking skin on his elbow and on the tip of one of his fingers. The officer then pepper-sprayed Artey and took him into custody.
At around 3:20 a.m., an officer was dispatched to McNamara Hall to investigate a reported larceny. According to the victim, she had left her room to take a shower and had turned off the lights and closed the door without locking it. When she returned over an hour later, her door was open, her lights were on and her laptop and shoes were missing. She was asking for the assistance of a floor-mate to help her look for possible suspects in the dorm, when they heard fast-paced footsteps heading down a connecting hallway. They saw someone run down a stairwell, so they set off in pursuit to investigate.
When they got to the bottom of the stairs, they went into the lounge near the stairwell, where according to the victim, a girl was lying on a couch breathing heavily and pretending to sleep while her arms were wrapped around a blanket which appeared to have something within it.
The victim then confronted the girl and unwrapped the blanket, which she found to have contained a PlayStation 3 and an accompanying controller. The victim then called the police because she believed the suspect may have also stolen her items.
When an officer arrived, the suspect claimed that two males had dropped the PlayStation 3 in the hallway and ran off, so she picked it up. The officer found that the laptop was not stolen by the suspect, but by someone else. Coincidentally, the UMPD believe that the suspect stole the PlayStation 3 from another room, but no one has come forward about a missing gaming system to this point. If and when someone does come forward, the suspect will be issued a summons to court on a possible charge of larceny. As for the shoes, the victim found them on the same floor as the lounge, and they had been passed along amongst individuals on that floor. The individuals claimed that they had found the shoes on the ground nearby in the hall.
At approximately 8:29 p.m., Antonio Peschiera, 19, of Auburn, was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Peschiera was attempting to sneak marijuana into the Mullins Center, when he was caught by security staff and a police officer. He refused to cooperate when the officer and staff member confronted him, and he began yelling and resisting them, which drew attention to the situation. He was then placed under arrest and was reluctantly placed into a police van where he repeatedly kicked his feet against the officers’ seats and screamed for his girlfriend. Peschiera was not charged with possession of a class-B drug because he had under an ounce in his possession.
At around 10:00 p.m., Kurt Chisholm, a 22-year-old English major from Milton, was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct. Chisholm got into an altercation with a staff member when he was being escorted from the Mullins Center which was holding the University’s Spring Concert. When he was being escorted, Chisholm struck the arm of the staff member, which knocked the flashlight from the individual’s hand. He continued to create a disturbance by yelling at the staff member, which is when a UMPD officer stepped in and placed Chisholm under arrest.
In regards to the two major events at the Mullins Center this past weekend, Archbald was impressed by the low number of arrests and injuries in comparison to previous years.
“Both events were very well-run by the Mullins Center staff, the security staff and by our staff as well,” said Archbald. “I was very impressed based on the outcome from Spring Concerts in the past.”
Archbald also recognized the work put in by the UMass Fire Department, and local paramedics who had performed triages on scene, which allowed individuals who had had too much alcohol consumption to be monitored outside of the Mullins Center, rather than be transported to a local hospital.
Monday, April 16
At around 4:50 a.m., the UMPD received a 911 call from two men claiming that they had been “jumped” near the Southwest Circle. When an officer arrived, the men claimed that they had been attacked by two other men whom they did not know prior to about 30 minutes before the call. They said that about a half hour earlier, they had shared a cigarette with one of the suspects, when one of the victims told the suspects that he was a member of a UMass athletic team – which was later confirmed to be true. A little while later, the men supposedly came across the victims again, and one of them shouted “that’s the f***ing liar,” and they proceeded to attack them, punching them in the abdomen and face.
The UMPD is currently reviewing video surveillance in the area, and are checking card-swipe data in Washington Hall, where it is believed that the suspects entered at one point. The suspects were also believed to have stolen two bicycles during the night, and were apparently riding them when they encountered the victims the second time.
Taylor Snow can be reached at [email protected].
