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CNN Sunday Morning

Melee Erupts in Downtown Salt Lake City Park

Aired February 24, 2002 - 07:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now more on this hour's top story. The melee in Salt Lake City at a beer garden in a downtown park. We go live now to CNN's Rusty Dornin in Salt Lake. She has more.

Good morning, Rusty.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kyra. Well, you know, this was really the last night that people could pack the area of downtown to party and one of the most popular areas that -- for people to go here has been Bud World. Now, that's about three or four blocks from the medal plaza here. People pour out onto the streets. They go down to Bud World. And what happened last night was apparently, people were -- wanted to get into the venue and were crowding the security areas so quickly that they became angry and began climbing the fences. And so, police moved in when they couldn't -- when the people wouldn't back off.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DET. DWAYNE BAIRD, SALT LAKE CITY POLICE: There were lots of people that were trying to get into that area, but they were not able to get through the magnetometers and the bag checks fast enough for them, apparently and they started to become unruly. So when they called for our officers, our officers responded and found that that was in fact the case and they needed to be moved along.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DORNIN: They moved more than 75 officers in in full riot gear. They ended up firing some kind of non-lethal bullets into the crowd. About 30 people were arrested. There was some property damage. We have not heard of any injuries yet. But some of the folks in that crowd had mixed feelings about how it all came down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brutal brutality happened in Salt Lake City tonight. We're hanging out on the street and all of a sudden; we're getting shot at with rubber bullets and pushing us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we could have chilled out all in the streets and had an excellent time and they ruined it by throwing it at the riot guys. I mean, where we could have had a good time, the riot guys did what they had to do. They were getting brutally assaulted. I don't blame them for shooting them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DORNIN: Now, the long term legacy of this melee in downtown Salt Lake City may actually affect how other events are handled in the future in terms of alcohol. You know, there was a lot of controversy here about whether alcohol should be served in the venues here. There are very strict rules on alcohol in Utah and in Salt Lake City as a result of the Church of Later Day Saints. So it'll be interesting to see what the long-term effects of that are.

And of course, it's on -- tonight, is the closing ceremony and the big thing everyone is looking forward to today, of course, is the hockey game between the U.S. and Canada -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: There you go. There's a good thing to focus on. Rusty Dornin, thank you so much.

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