“I just seen everybody just starting running to one area and stuff,” said one person describing what happened on Saturday night.
Over the weekend, a charity basketball tournament in Norwich ended in chaos after a fight broke out at Jenkins Park. Between 10 and 20 people, according to Norwich Police, were involved in the brawl that resulted in police response from numerous local departments.
“The narrative that’s out there is it was gang activity, it was gang members fighting – no, it was teenage boys fighting over a female that got to a certain point where it looked like it was something more than it was but it wasn’t,” said one person who was there.
Police say that as they tried to de-escalate the situation, others among the hundreds attending the event began inserting themselves into the fight.
“It got pretty big, it got pretty rough, but we were breaking it up and after Norwich Police arrived, they kind of escalated the situation instead of de-escalating,” said one eventgoer.
Some who were present believed the officers were using excessive force on the crowd and certain individuals.
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“I just didn’t think they needed seven police officers for one person,” said an eventgoer.
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That one person is Jayden Jarmon, 23, who police say was punching someone in the back of the head.
When authorities tried making an arrest, Norwich Police said Jarmon placed an officer in a choke hold and began punching and kneeing the officer in the head.
Police say that’s what led them to use fist strikes, OC spray and a stun gun in order to arrest the individual.
Others who were there disagreed with what police say happened.
“They’re trying to paint a narrative that he was punching at cops,” one eventgoer said. “I didn’t see that personally, a lot of other people said they didn’t see that personally.”
The video included in the above story only shows part of what occurred on Saturday night.
The Norwich Police Department says it plans to release body cam footage from the incident in the near future. They were unavailable for comment on Monday.
