Police reports detail brawls at Salute to America in Jefferson City

Jefferson City police officers said a “chaotic” scene at Salute to America on the Fourth of July led to them detaining six juveniles.

ABC 17 News obtained police reports following multiple fights in the 200 block of Capitol Avenue on July 4. Officers detained six for allegedly resisting arrest as they tried to break up the fights.

A report from Sgt. Jason Payne said that officers were first called to the area for a group of minors throwing fireworks out of a parking garage on Madison Street around 10 p.m. Payne said officers stopped anyone else from entering the garage while they “received verbal abuse and threats of violence” from the juveniles there.

Shortly after, carnival staff alerted police of the fights happening on Capitol Avenue. Payne said seven officers arrived in two different groups. A crowd of 40 to 50 people, Payne wrote, watched as two to three fights took place in front of carnival stands.

Multiple officers recounted going into the crowd to separate people and detaining some of those allegedly involved in the fights.

A video sent to ABC 17 News shows officers putting handcuffs on people and throwing others to the ground in an attempt to separate multiple groups. While officers begin walking people away from the scene, another fight starts up. An officer can be seen using pepper spray on the crowd to break it up.

Payne wrote that he felt someone “tugging” at his duty belt. A magazine fell out of the belt, he said, and it was pulled “so hard it turned on my waist,” he wrote. Payne said he used pepper spray to regain control of the situation and out of fear for his and other officers’ safety.

Officials with the Cole County juvenile court did not return an email Tuesday asking about the status of the six juveniles detained.