Fights. Gun possession arrests. Security criticism. What really happened at Heritage Bowl
More information has emerged, and more questions remain unanswered, in the wake of fights among attendees and arrests for carrying weapons at the Aug. 25 Heritage Bowl football game between Columbus rival high schools Carver and Spencer at A.J. McClung Memorial Stadium.
Here’s a roundup of what we know and still don’t know about the controversial event.
In an Aug. 25 news release announcing the early ending of the Heritage Bowl due to fights among spectators, the Muscogee County School District said “authorities received unsubstantiated reports of shots being fired away from the stadium.”
During an MCSD board meeting Aug. 30, superintendent David Lewis emphasized that no weapons were found inside the stadium. MCSD police chief Greg Arp told the board that all spectators went through a security check, including electronic wands and bag searches, to enter the stadium. No weapons were found at the gate, he said.
Near the end of the third quarter, a fight broke out among four female students, two in middle school and two in high school, Arp said. A “mass stampede” was sparked when “someone yelled, ‘Gun!” while six police officers broke up the fight, he said.
“None of us saw a gun, myself included,” he said.
After the stadium was cleared and the game was cut short because of the chaos, additional fights among juveniles ensued in the parking lot, Arp said.
One group included three males at the front entrance, near the ticket booth. Another comprised four females, plus an adult male — a parent — watching the fight, Arp said.
Police have identified and charged seven participants in the fights, Arp said, and their cases have been sent to Muscogee County Juvenile Court.
Arp added that police continue to try to identify participants in another fight that occurred outside the stadium, and further arrests and charges are expected.
List of arrests and criminal charges at Heritage Bowl
According to Arp and Columbus Police Department spokeswoman Brittany Santiago, 10 individuals — all juveniles, so their names aren’t released — were arrested and charged for alleged crimes committed Aug. 25 at the Heritage Bowl:
Arrested by CPD
16-year-old male, charged with carrying a weapon in an unauthorized location, brandishing a firearm, carrying a concealed firearm and minor in possession of a firearm.
15-year-old male, charged with carrying a weapon in an unauthorized location, brandishing a firearm, carrying a concealed firearm, minor in possession of a firearm and possession of a stolen firearm.
15-year-old male, charged with carrying a weapon in an unauthorized location, carrying a concealed firearm and minor in possession of a firearm.
Arrested by MCSD police
12-year-old female, charged with simple battery.
13-year-old female, charged with simple battery.
14-year-old female, charged with simple battery.
15-year-old female, charged with simple battery.
13-year-old male, charged with affray (fighting that disturbs public tranquility) and disorderly conduct.
13-year-old male, charged with affray and disorderly conduct.
14-year-old male, charged with affray and disorderly conduct.
None of the participants in any of the fights attend Carver or Spencer, Lewis said. In fact, he said, approximately 150 Spencer students returned to the stadium to clean up trash from the game.
“I thought that was very admirable,” Lewis said.
School board chairwoman criticizes event security
This was the 61st annual Heritage Bowl, which not only is a football game between rival schools that were established for Black students during segregation, but it’s also a celebration with several days of activities, including reunions, tailgating and fundraisers for scholarships.
“You have generations of people, parents, grandparents,” said board chairwoman Pat Hugley Green of District 1. “You have somewhere around 5,000 attendees. I still have a question as to why there was not public safety, law enforcement, in the parking lot as they do with all large community events. … This is an annual event, and for some reason this year, public safety became optional.”
Green said she asked that question to Mayor Skip Henderson, who because of his position also serves as the city’s public safety director. Green said she was told not enough police officers were willing to work at the game during their time off.
“But for the (police officers) who were on duty,” she said, “where were they? … To see CPD coming in reaction mode was both a relief and a question mark in my mind.”
Henderson hasn’t replied to the Ledger-Enquirer’s voicemail and email with questions about this incident.
Although the responding police got the situation under control in “15-20 minutes, people were in a panic,” Green said. “They were just jumping in their cars. To where, I don’t know. They weren’t following any pattern. So it became a gridlock.”
Because the city owns that stadium, Arp said, MCSD police must defer to CPD. Arp said he had “multiple conversations” with CPD Interim Chief Stoney Mathis and Muscogee County Sheriff Greg Countryman about how to improve the situation. Correctional officers from the Muscogee County Prison also help with security at MCSD football games, Arp said.
“I can’t make (officers) volunteer,” Arp said. “That’s why we had some of our own people down there. … There will be some further collaboration. … So whatever did fall apart on (Aug. 25), I feel we can rectify that.”
Three CPD officers worked at the event while off duty, Santiago told the Ledger-Enquirer. She didn’t disclose the number of on-duty CPD officers who responded to the call for help.
MCSD provided six officers to help CPD with security at the event, and five additional MCSD police officers working the game at Kinnett Stadium that night responded to the call for help at McClung, Arp told the Ledger-Enquirer.
One sheriff’s deputy worked at the Heritage Bowl, and five responded to the call for help, Countryman told the Ledger-Enquirer.
The Ledger-Enquirer didn’t reach Muscogee County Prison warden Herbert Walker before publication to find out the number of correctional officers who were part of the security force at the game.
When games are at MCSD-owned Kinnett and Odis Spencer stadiums, the school district typically doesn’t have a problem having enough security officers, Arp told the school board. Arp explained that’s because the MCSD police department is the law enforcement agency in charge at those sites and uses off-duty officers from CPD, the sheriff’s department and the prison to supplement.
But what is a problem, Arp said, is when games are played at all three stadiums at the same time.
“I don’t have enough people to man Kinnett and Spencer and help out at (McClung),” he said.
Two MCSD football games were played at the same time Aug. 25 in Columbus: the Heritage Bowl at McClung and Northside vs. LaGrange at Kinnett.
Arp praised the officers who did work at the Heritage Bowl.
“They stepped up and did their job admirably,” he said.
But safety at MCSD events is the responsibility of everyone involved, Lewis said, not only law enforcement officers. He noted “9-year-old children” still couldn’t find their parents an hour after the game.
Lewis lamented the Carver and Spencer seniors attending the game had their last Heritage Bowl cut short “all because of the actions of a few.”
MCSD’s subsequent policy changes
On Aug. 29, four days after the Heritage Bowl, MCSD announced revised rules for spectators attending varsity football games at Kinnett and Odis Spencer stadiums. Those new rules include screening for weapons and banning entry for children in middle school or younger unless they are accompanied by a parent or guardian at least 21 years old who may be responsible for no more than five students at the game.
A 17-year-old was arrested on two counts of carrying a weapon on school property during the Aug. 18 game between Spencer and Greenville high schools at Odis Spencer Stadium. An MCSD police officer noticed the outline of a handgun in the teen’s book bag and found two loaded handguns inside.
The news release didn’t mention games at McClung. Asked about that omission, MCSD communications director Kimberly Wright wrote in an Aug. 29 email to the Ledger-Enquirer, “Due to staffing issues related to security, the District has suspended the use of the stadium until the security situation can be adequately addressed.”
Since then, Wright and Arp haven’t answered the L-E’s request to specify those issues and how they are being addressed. They also haven’t answered:
What are the factors in determining how many law enforcement officers are assigned to provide security at MCSD football games?
How is the number of assigned officers different and why, if at all, at Kinnett, Odis Spencer and McClung?
