GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Police are looking into a brawl that broke out early Sunday morning in a downtown Grand Rapids parking garage.
Grand Rapids Police say 10 officers responded just before 1:00 a.m. Sunday when they were called by DeVos Place security that a crowd at a party was getting out of control. The police assisted people getting out of the party, but the brawls broke out in the Government Center parking ramp across Monroe Avenue.
Cars were backed up trying to leave when the fights broke out. Several cell phone videos were recorded by participants and witnesses. You can watch them below, but be advised there is strong language, violence and other disturbing scenes. Even an Uber driver shared his video of the aftermath that spilled onto Monroe Avenue around 1:40 a.m. and told FOX 17 his passengers asked him to drive them back home.
Police say that no one involved wanted to press charges or talk with officers at the time of the brawls, though the GRPD are working to identify who was involved and are considering pressing charges, if any, based on these videos.
“We have clear offenses right there: disorderly fighting, they are downtown within our jurisdiction,” said Sgt. Terry Dixon with the GRPD.
“As a result of the video, that’s going to be assigned to a detective to look at a whole lot more thoroughly to determine what charges, if any, that we’d like to pursue, and identify those who are involved, and we will go from there.”
DeVos Place staff tell FOX 17 that the party was exceeding the 700-person capacity and the guests had been asked to leave. The party was scheduled to end at midnight, being held for a Chris “C Dot” Howard. Howard appears to be an aspiring reality TV star who posts his videos of flipping houses onto YouTube.
Event organizer Ricki Seymour posted to Howard’s Facebook page apologizing for what happened after their event, writing in part: “I would like to apologize to each and everyone that had a rough time at any of these events… Learn to act as an adult when you step out to keep the city safe.. We don’t condone childish activities.”
Officers also said part of the issue Sunday morning was a bottleneck of cars at the exit ramp. At one point a sergeant lifted the ramp’s gates so people could pay and leave more quickly.
As of Monday evening, Dixon said there have been no arrests.
