Police used time-tested techniques – including mounted patrols and non-lethal paintball projectiles – to quell the crowd that gathered in Dinkytown after the University of Minnesota Gopher hockey team lost a national championship game Saturday night.
But they are using a newer tool – social media sites – to track down those responsible for property damage.
Police told KSTP they are combing through sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to find anyone who might be responsible for damage done during the boisterous post-game gathering of several hundred students. Nineteen were arrested, only eight of whom were students, FOX 9 reports.
As many as 300 officers were at the scene, as were local media, which offered live coverage of the unrest.
Police are reviewing a lot of footage from the scene, including video shot by a mobile camera posted by Minneapolis police, and cell phone video shot by witnesses and the revelers themselves, FOX 9 notes. Police are also reviewing video from surveillance cameras in the area, KARE 11 reports.
Police said there were two known cases of arson, but the total amount of property damage had not yet been determined, the Star Tribune reports. There were no reports of major injury, which a police spokesman told the Star Tribune was a “best-case scenario.”
Students will be held responsible for their actions, and punishments range from a warning to suspension or expulsion, a university statement said.
University officials in the statement thanked the city of Minneapolis and its police, and university police, for restoring calm.
The statement said, in part, “It is important to remember that we have more than 50,000 students at the University’s Twin Cities campus. Only a small percentage of those gathered in Dinkytown and an even smaller number engaged in unacceptable behavior.”
It was the second night of unrest in Dinkytown after students also gathered there and arrests were made after a semifinal hockey game win Thursday night.
The Gophers on Saturday lost the title hockey game 7-4 to Union College.
