Chief says five cited after game

Moments after the Backyard Brawl ended Saturday night, the celebration in Oakland began. The… Moments after the Backyard Brawl ended Saturday night, the celebration in Oakland began. The 13-9 upset victory over No. 2-ranked WVU was enough to send students pouring onto the streets and toward the Cathedral.

“It was crazy,” freshman Bridget Ferris said. “People were running around screaming. It was intense.”

A video on YouTube labels Saturday night’s events “riots in Oakland,” but Pitt police Chief Timothy Delaney insists this isn’t the right term.

“It was a celebration,” Delaney said. “I think riot is a term that has a negative connotation. Everything that we asked [the revelers] to do, they did. It was a celebration.”

Delaney, like countless others, was not expecting the Panthers to win, but that didn’t stop the police from responding.

“We have an emergency plan that we put into effect, same as for the Super Bowl,” Delaney said. “We simply held the afternoon shift over. That gave us 13 officers.”

These officers responded to Atwood Street, Bigelow Boulevard, Forbes Avenue, Bouquet Street and Meyran Avenue – what Delaney calls his 12-block area.

By the end of the night, they responded to 19 fire calls. Some of the fires, such as those on Chesterfield Street and Forbes Avenue, were couch fires. Others involved garbage cans.

“I do not like the tradition of couch burning,” Delaney said. “It’s arson. If we can prove it, we will charge them with it. I don’t want that to be a tradition for Pitt.”

Despite the fact that 1,000 or 2,000 people were present, the Pitt police only cited five individuals. Delaney did not have their names on hand but did say that his officers obtained information from these individuals, and they will receive summons in the mail.

According to Delaney, these people may face charges for obstructing the highway, failure to disperse, disorderly conduct and/or arson.

“One kid was sitting on the chair that was on fire – you can see that on YouTube,” Delaney said. “That’s something we have to take action on, stupidity like that.”

Overall, Delaney was relatively pleased with how the night went.

“Out of the 1,000 to 2,000 kids, that’s five people we felt we had to do something to,” Delaney said. “That’s not bad. That’s a bunch of happy people enjoying themselves, aside from the five.”

In fact, Delaney doesn’t mind letting students celebrate if they’re doing so safely.

“I was determined to give them about 40 minutes of celebration,” Delaney said. “You allow them to enjoy themselves or peak and then you announce ‘This is what we need to do. We need to open up Forbes.'”

Delaney added that it was easier to respond to Saturday’s celebrations than to respond to those that followed the Steelers’ Super Bowl win in 2006.

“There were no cars overturned,” Delaney said. “That was the problem we had with the Super Bowl. Nothing even close to that [happened] and I wish we do not start a tradition Morgantown has, and that’s burning things. Someone’s gonna get hurt.”