Two Tufts students were injured - one badly - in a fight on a bus on the way back from last week's senior pub night.
Seniors Mike Ott and Dan Weinbeck were on the bus returning from The Hong Kong Restaurant, Pub, Bar, Lounge & Nightclub in Harvard Square early last Friday morning when they were allegedly assaulted by a non-Tufts student.
Shortly after the bus left Harvard Square, the non-Tufts student began arguing with other people on the bus.
Senior Pranav Kapoor was sitting in the sixth or seventh row of the bus. "Someone asked [the non-Tufts student] if he could stop nudging them," Kapoor said. "The next thing I know one of my female friends stood up and pushed him away."
The non-Tufts student was calmed down, but as the bus got closer to campus, the argument restarted.
"People started warning the bus driver that there were kids that weren't from Tufts," Kapoor said. The driver did not respond.
"People started to stand up and yell at each other in front of me," Weinbeck said. "It turned into a shoving match."
The non-Tufts student and Ott began fighting. Ott was punched in the face. "The guy flared up again and threw a punch at a guy in the first or second row," Kapoor said. "There was only one direct hit."
Ott, whose cheek bones were severely damaged, declined to comment. Ott - the backup quarterback on the football team - did not play in the team's opening game last Saturday.
Four people on the bus tried to restrain the non-Tufts student.
Weinbeck, who said he did not know why the fight started, was one of the people who restrained the non-Tufts student. "As soon as he hit him, that's when I grabbed him," Weinbeck said.
To get out of Weinbeck's grasp, the non-Tufts student bit Weinbeck repeatedly on the shoulder. "He bit me through my shirt and held on to it," Weinbeck said.
During the struggle, someone on the bus was knocked into the inside of the windshield.
A Somerville Police Department car appeared behind the bus. The police had been alerted through a direct department line - not a 911 call.
A call to 911 is traced, but there is no phone number on the police report. The report also does not indicate the officer found the bus without a call. "It doesn't show that as a self-initiated incident," Somerville Police Department Lieutenant Paul Upton said.
The call likely came from the driver or someone on the bus, he said.
As the bus pulled into Powderhouse Rotary, the driver stopped the bus. The driver had not tried to stop the fight earlier.
The Somerville police alerted the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD). "They called us indicating there was an incident," TUPD Captain Mark Keith said.
At least two TUPD officers responded to the scene.
When the bus stopped, the non-Tufts student and an acquaintance exited the bus. They walked a block from the bus and got into a taxi.
The other people exited the bus, including Ott and Weinbeck. The taxi turned around and drove past the bus and the passengers.
Ott and Weinbeck saw the non-Tufts student in the taxi, and told the TUPD officers.
The Somerville police followed the taxi and pulled it over just outside the rotary. TUPD officers then took Ott and Weinbeck to the pulled-over taxi to identify the non-Tufts student.
The incident was classified as a simple assault, as opposed to a felony.
The Somerville police did not make any arrests. "There is no right of arrest on a simple assault not in the officer's presence," Upton said.
Nobody was taken to the hospital by the police. "If they went to the hospital, they went there on their own," Upton said.
Weinbeck said TUPD passed him on to Tufts Emergency Medical Services, which took him to Lawrence Memorial Hospital in Medford. He was released quickly.
The case is still open at TUPD, and the department will investigate the incident if either Ott or Weinbeck presses charges. "The victims have the opportunity to take out a complaint against the individual for assault and battery," Keith said.
The department will also assist the students if they press charges outside of the University.
Neither student has chosen to do so. Weinbeck said he hoped Ott would press charges. "I'm too busy to go bother with that," Weinbeck said.
The event - which started during the night of Thursday, Sept. 22 - was run by the Senior Class Council.
Tufts ID cards were required to board the bus only on the way to The Hong Kong. "Typically it has not been the practice on the way back, but always on the way there," Senior Class President Dave Baumwoll said.
With the traffic in Harvard Square, organizers loaded students coming from the bar directly onto the bus. "We did not have time to check IDs," Baumwoll said.
For future events, the class council expects to implement a wristband system. Students boarding the bus on the way to the event would be given a wristband, which they would need to board the bus again at the end of the night. "They won't be able to get back on the bus if they take it off," Baumwoll said.
TUPD was not consulted by the Senior Class Council or the Office of Student Activities on the security for the bus. "We didn't know what event the bus was coming from," Keith said. "We weren't involved in that."
The bus was operated by the Vocell Bus Company, which also runs the late-night shuttle to Boston. A company representative said the driver was not injured, and that the driver had not yet filed a report of the incident to the company.
