Homecoming Melee
By Valencia Stevenson | Published by Oct. 29, 2018
Lil Baby’s homecoming concert last week on Wednesday night at Kean turned into a night of altercations occurring.
During the show, a male student rushed on the stage to take a video with Lil Baby only to be pushed away by the rapper, followed by a swift shove off the stage from one of Lil Baby’s personal security guards. The male was then cuffed and brought out the building by Union County Sheriff’s department officers.
“The Lil Baby concert was fun, very exciting. A lot of great moments. The people seemed hyped and a lot of energy was in the room. After the concert, we were leaving and then out of nowhere we just see people rushing towards each other and kind of fighting. Then the police came out and pushed people towards the Vaughn Eames parking lot and the dorms,” said Tyler Mickens, senior at Kean.
It was reported that two altercations happened outside of Wilkins Theatre, near the campus police department and dorms causing hysterics after the concert.
One altercation caused a huge brawl outside of Burch Hall over a female who called her friends to fight in her name due to name calling. It was also reported that multiple cops bum-rushed the crowd to break up the fights.
“People were arguing and out of nowhere these guys started fighting and people started jumping in on both sides. It was definitely a lot of people involved. At some point it got to the grass and police started coming from all angles, they said we either had to go home or go to the dorms,” said Mickens. “I think the biggest problem is giving the tickets to general admission. If you would have just kept it to the school, it would’ve been perfect. You have everybody in different areas and you just don’t know what will happen.”
Students were reported fleeing around the campus with police trying to restore order. Bystanders were even pushed aside and one student reported losing his headphones because he was shoved so hard.At the time of the fight, police seemed to have little knowledge of what was going on. They followed on foot and a police car drove onto the sidewalk to pursue the crowd down Cougar Walk until stopping in between the human rights institute and Center for Academic Success (CAS) building.
“Kean University was pleased to host a concert with rapper Lil Baby last week as part of our Homecoming celebration on our Union campus. After the event, Kean police and law enforcement from surrounding communities responded to a fight outside the venue, which was quickly resolved,” said Margaret McCorry, Director of Media Relations. “Although some people were initially detained, they were released without charges and no one was seriously injured. Kean takes the safety and security of our community very seriously at all of our events. The Office of Community Standards and Student Conduct is investigating the incident.”