An Ole Miss fan claims he was assaulted by police officers during Saturday’s game against LSU and denied medical attention after the altercation.
Holly Barnes, the wife of Ole Miss fan Chris Barnes, shared a video on Facebook showing a confrontation between her husband and several officers at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
My husband, a two time Veteran of the US Army National Guard, was wrongfully assaulted on campus during the Ole Miss vs LSU game by a POLICE OFFICER. He was hit twice in the face and then arrested. THEY DID NOT GIVE HIM MEDICAL ATTENTION. Four hours later once he posted bail, he asked his friends to take him to the ER. He was diagnosed with a concussion, fractures to his orbital wall and maxillary sinus and contusions to the tissues of his eyes. This all stemmed because the officers thought he did something that someone a few rows up did and blamed him and his friends. I’m disappointed in the University police department and the Oxford police department for letting this happen. YOU ARE NOT ABOVE THE LAW. THIS IS NOT OK. Please help us get justice by calling out this police officer! I want his NAME AND BADGE! Please help me get this to the media by sharing. Thank you. Pictures posted in comments.
Posted by Holly Barnes on Sunday, November 22, 2015
Holly claimed the incident began when Chris was blamed for something that fans sitting several rows behind him had done.
“This all stemmed because the officers thought he did something that someone a few rows up did and blamed him and his friends,” she wrote. “I’m disappointed in the University police department and the Oxford police department for letting this happen. YOU ARE NOT ABOVE THE LAW. THIS IS NOT OK. Please help us get justice by calling out this police officer! I want his NAME AND BADGE! Please help me get this to the media by sharing. Thank you. Pictures posted in comments.”
Barnes added that Chris only received medical attention when his friend brought him to the emergency room after he posted bail four hours later. She claims he was diagnosed with “a concussion, fractures to his orbital wall and maxillary sinus and contusions to the tissues of his eyes.”
According to WLBT in Mississippi, which shared the photo you see above, Ole Miss is aware of the incident and said the officers involved do not work for the university.
“The University of Mississippi Police Department is aware of the video of an incident taking place at the Ole Miss-LSU football game,” Ole Miss Police said in a statement. “The officers involved are not officers with the University Police Department, but are certified officers from other jurisdictions hired to work security at home football games. The University of Mississippi Police Department takes this situation seriously, and is currently investigating the incident. We encourage anyone that witnessed the event to contact the department at 662-915-7234 or email us at upd@olemiss.edu.”
Unfortunately, we see brawls in and outside stadiums (here’s another recent example) all the time. It’s hard to tell exactly what happened in this particular case, as we could not hear what Barnes and the officers were arguing about. Still, it seemed like three police officers should have been able to restrain one guy and remove him from the stadium without throwing punches to the face.
