Smuggled beer, resisting arrest: A look at game day crime at USC’s Williams-Brice Stadium
One young man tried to smuggle beer into Williams-Brice Stadium and was later arrested. A woman was so hostile that she had to be pulled from a bathroom stall — it took several officers to subdue her as she tried to bite and kick them.
Authorities say such behavior is a small part of football game day at the University of South Carolina.
“The vast majority of fans come to games to have a good time and cheer on the Gamecocks in a family friendly environment,” said university spokesman Jeff Stensland. “It’s a small minority that fails to exhibit acceptable behavior, and our law enforcement officers and Student Affairs staff does an excellent job mitigating that bad behavior when it does occur. Students also know they can risk losing their ticketing privilege for the year, so act accordingly.”
Stensland said that university law enforcement and their partners have a “significant” presence to maintain safety at football games, inside and outside of Williams-Brice Stadium.
It doesn’t preclude some from misconduct.
The State took a look at university police incident reports from the last home football game against Mississippi State University on Sept. 23. With more than 78,000 fans attending, just four reports were filed by university police. But they were notable.
A 21-year-old man was arrested for trespassing after being kicked out for hiding beer in his pants.
An officer positioned at a student gate observed a man who appeared to have items inside his pants, according to a police report. Patrons in the area often attempt to smuggle in prohibited items like alcoholic beverages, an officer wrote in the report.
The officer approached the man and searched him — there were four Coors Light beers in his pants. The man was escorted from Williams-Brice for violating its policy. According to the police report, the man was told that he would be placed on trespass and arrested if he tried to enter the venue again.
So when an officer saw the man re-enter the stadium, he was arrested, searched and booked. He was transported to Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center by the Richland County Sheriff’s Department.
Another woman was arrested for disorderly conduct, trespassing and resisting arrest.
Around 9 p.m. a man reported that a woman intentionally poured beer on him, according to a police report. The woman had “fled” to the women’s restroom in the 800 section of the stadium.
USC staff cleared the restroom and found that the woman locked herself in one of the stalls, according to police. Officers asked her several times to open the door, but she wouldn’t. A friend of hers eventually crawled under the door and unlocked it from the inside.
Police explained to her she was being kicked out of the stadium, and attempted to get her leave the stall on her own. She refused, and an officer had to pull her out of the stall and escort her to the ground with an “arm bar takedown” — a technique used by law enforcement to subdue a subject.
The woman continued to struggle on the ground as police told her to stop, but the woman resisted and would not comply with the officer’s commands.
She was put under arrest and, while being handcuffed, the woman attempted to kick an officer several times, according to the incident report. And when an officer tried to help her to her feet, she resisted by being “dead weight” and laid on the ground.
“She continued to lay on the ground at which time she began trying to kick and bite officers,” the report read.
It took several officers to gain control of the woman and secure her legs in a leg hobble to prevent her from kicking anyone.
The woman was eventually transported to Prisma Baptist Hospital for evaluation, and once medically cleared, she was handcuffed again and continued to struggle as police escorted her to a patrol car and taken to Alvin S. Glenn.
That same day, police were called about a missing person. A woman told officers that her friend, another woman, had been missing for over two hours and was last seen consuming alcohol at the Cockaboose Club, in the lower bowl of Williams-Brice.
Police did a sweep of the stadium and did not find the missing woman, according to an incident report, and her information was entered into the National Crime Information Center. Stensland said the missing person was located, unharmed, shortly after the report was filed.
A rape was also reported at the Mississippi State game, but there were no further details in the incident report. USC police are still investigating the assault, Stensland said.
The Columbia Police Department and the Richland County Sheriff’s Department said they had no record any other incidents at Williams-Brice Stadium on Sept. 23.
It’s not unusual for patrons to be escorted from the stadium for poor behavior.
At the Sept. 9 home game against Furman University, a 17-year-old was removed for being aggressive and drunk.
A police officer was flagged by a USC student who was arguing with her boyfriend, a 17-year-old. He was “grossly intoxicated” and had alcohol on his breath, according to an incident report. He was “acting belligerently” by yelling, using profanities and being uncooperative. He was handcuffed and taken into custody for disorderly conduct. The teen became “irate and resistive,” so much so that it took four officers to physically restrain him. A juvenile petition regarding the incident was filed in family court.
But for an event with nearly 80,000 attendees, football games are mostly tame.
“It’s a very vibrant, electric atmosphere,” Stensland said. “That’s an environment our fans have come to love and expect. For our officers, they are not concerned about fans being loud and having a good time, they are concerned with fans that may present a danger to others or themselves through their behavior.”
