When AP ’09 saw the police shooting canisters of pepper spray on Fountain Avenue, he began to run. AP claims that he then tossed his beer can, at no particular target, and began to move toward the Freeman Athletic Center. AP then realized he had company.

“Officer [Douglas] Clark was chasing me with a dog,” AP explained. “I was terrified, I didn’t know why I was being chased. I darted behind 41 Fountain, and he was still behind me. I then ran to my friend’s house at 10 Fountain, went into their living room, tried to shut the door, but Clark got in the doorway. He made it through and I fell onto the ground with my hands above my head, and his dog jumped on me.”

According to AP, Clark’s dog violently bit him for between 15 and 20 seconds. AP claims Clark just watched.

“I was screaming to Clark to get his big dog off me, begging him to as blood ran down my face,” AP said. “He just let the dog do it.”

The police then took AP to the hospital where he was treated for the bites, receiving two staples in the back of his head and treatment for bites on his buttocks, along with heavy antibiotics.

“I’m lucky my jeans were so thick, otherwise I’d have staples in my ass.”

While AP was at the hospital, President Michael Roth visited him.

“I was really moved when he came and visited me in the hospital,” said Price. “He drove all the way to the hospital at 3 a.m. It gave me a lot of hope in him.”

AP was then taken to the police station and put into a holding cell around 5:30 a.m., where he was charged with disorderly conduct; assaulting an officer, a charge relating to trying to close the door on Officer Clark; resisting arrest; and possession of marijuana. AP ‘s court date is set for June 2. He said he intends to press charges against Clark.

Andrew Dermont ’09 was also taken to the hospital, and then to the police station. Dermont was arrested for allegedly throwing an empty liquor bottle at an officer, although he claims that he had tossed it toward the grass, never hitting an officer as he ran down Fountain Avenue toward the Fauver dorms.

“I didn’t hit anything,” Dermont stated. “But I was tackled by the officers marching down Fountain, on the left hand side.”

Ian Trancynger ’09 was one of the first students to be arrested. As soon as the police arrived, Trancynger began questioning the officers.

“I was like, what’s going on here?” Trancynger asked. “Is that a paintball gun? But right as they began shooting, I got hit several times with these rubber bullets.”

Jesse Rosenthal ’09, attempted to protect Trancynger by tackling him to shield him from bullets. Rosenthal and Trancynger were then pepper sprayed and Rosenthal was shot by two rubber bullets, the wounds of which are still visible on his body.

Officers then pulled Rosenthal off Trancynger, dragging Trancynger off into a locked cop car. Rosenthal then began coughing furiously, eventually coughing up blood in reaction to the pepper spray. Both Trancynger and Rosenthal said their bodies still sting.

“It was absurd that they thought we were about to incite a riot,” Rosenthal said. “If the police hadn’t shown up and created this spectacle nothing would have happened. When all those cop cars show up with all that gas and dogs, it seems like they had some sort of malicious intent. But I don’t get it, no one really fought back against the police. I don’t know how it escalated like that. It was just a bunch of people loitering on the street, and someone threw a can. One person not the whole crowd.”

Trancynger alleged that officers never read him his rights nor explained why he was under arrest.

“I was scared, confused, emotional and no one was telling me what was going on,” Trancynger recounted. “I kept hitting the windows to get their attention, but they kept ignoring me, so I tried kicking the door to get out. Then an officer came and tasered me twice. Being tasered is awful.”

When Derek Silverman’09 saw the canisters of pepper spray being shot into the crowd of students, he began shouting at the officers.

“When I saw those guns I freaked out,” Silverman said. “So I began yelling and an officer tasered me. My body froze from the shock. I tried running but I couldn’t run very far. The police tackled me on the lawn and put me in handcuffs.”

Silverman’s court date is set for next Friday with a fine of $5,000 if he is absent. None of the students had to make bail.

“After a while the officers sat the arrested guys who were there at the time—Trancynger, Silverman and Christopher Foley [’10]—down and explained their side of the story,” Silverman said. “They basically said that they had no choice and the crowd was unruly.”

Silverman does not totally agree with the officers’ claim.

“Sure it’s their job to be the police,” Silverman said. “But the way the police officers acted was extremely excessive. K-9 units, pepper spray and rubber bullets should only be the final element I just didn’t see the logical shift take place where those things were necessary.”

Reflecting on his experiences, Price feels numb.

“I haven’t slept since it happened, I’m just really confused and scared,” he said. “At first I didn’t feel anything. I hate talking to the media, but people need to know about this. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but this cannot happen again. I don’t want anyone to experience what I went through.”

Rosenthal watched the local news reports with some friends after the incident and found the media’s tone surprising.

“At times the TV news were sympathetic to the students, but most of the time they made the whole thing seem like there was this insane, out-of-control party, which is just wrong,” Rosenthal said. “It’s been really weird to see the twenty-second spots that showed us just standing around and the voiceover talks about it as though it was a riot.”

Trancynger finds the whole experience surreal.

“You know those times when you’re not supposed to laugh at something but because of that you can’t help it?” Trancynger said. “It was kind like that: so absurd but so awful. I don’t know what a normal response would be, it was so shocking, but I can’t help but laugh. Maybe it’s my way of dealing with it.”

In the meantime, Silverman is worried what will happen the next time police are called to break up a party.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen to Senior Week,” Silverman said. “But it’ll be really strange the next time the police or Public Safety show up. They need to take a different approach. Hopefully we can build a better relationship with campus police where they don’t have to call the Middletown police again. No one wants this to happen ever again.”

Foley, the fifth Wesleyan student who was arrested, declined to comment.