Haley Russell
Assistant News Editor
Flashlights flicked from one side of the room to the other as people squeezed passed each other in an attempt to leave the Alpha Gamma Rho house’s basement in the early morning hours on Oct. 16 as a fight broke out between several males.
Tony Mohr, AGR president, said the fight resulted when several people were observed vandalizing sound equipment and became aggressive after being asked to leave. Mohr said rumors the fight was based on race are false.
There was no confirmation to whether members of the fraternity were involved in the fight.
Calloway County Sheriff Bill Markham and fellow officers responded at 1 a.m., assisted by a Kentucky State Police trooper.
Mohr said the fraternity handles situations such as this by following Alpha Gamma Rho’s National Risk Management Policy.
“I’m not sure of the extent to which any fighting happened, but as soon as I received word of the issue, I brought a sheriff deputy in and shut down the party,” Mohr said via email. “No laws or University rules were broken and everything was taken care of peacefully.”
Tara Hawthorne, director for Greek life, said she was unaware of any incidents taking place.
A party attendant said she noticed the fight beginning to break out while she was dancing.
“I was dancing and having a good time and all of a sudden, I hear all this commotion in the corner,” she said. “So my friends and I turn around and we look and see what’s going on and we noticed they were in a fight.”
The witness said she saw the fight escalade within minutes.
“It started off with a couple of guys, and then a few more guys and before you knew it, the whole corner was just throwing fists at each other,” she said.
At that point, she and the rest of the party’s attendants started making their way to the side stairs.
“They started yelling at people, ‘Get out! Get out! Get out!’” she said. “While we’re walking to the stairs, someone’s hand is placed on my neck and pushes me out of the way and I almost hit the ground,” she said. “It was some guy who was trying to run and get out of it.”
She said when she got out of the basement, she looked around for the people she came with to leave.
“I finally ran into them and I left as quickly as possible,” she said. “But before I left, I witnessed another fight between two guys. All of a sudden, another guy came out of nowhere and body slammed one of them.”
Don Robertson, vice president of Student Affairs, said Thursday afternoon that he just recently become aware of the incident and a formal investigation is underway.
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