Akron police arrested three teens who officers say “challenged” them as a crowd of about 100 was leaving a roller skating rink on the city’s east side Saturday night.
Two 16-year-old boys were arrested on disorderly conduct charges and 18-year-old Eliljah Hawkins was charged with obstructing official business.
A four-page police report says the three teens were among a large crowd exiting the GSFE Cade skating rink at 1615 E. Market St. about 10:30 p.m.
Police say the rink has been the focus of the department’s Neighborhood Response Team because of a series of incidents involving teens fighting, blocking traffic, trespassing, menacing and stealing during the past two to three months. About four officers were assigned to the response detail at the rink. As events escalated, three more cruisers were called to the scene.
Owners of the rink could not be reached for comment Monday.
An estimated crowd of 100 people, mostly teens, were milling outside the rink about 10:30 p.m., when an officer saw one of the 16-year-old boys starting a fight with a younger girl, police said. The officer ordered the boy to leave, but he laughed and refused, police said.
Instead, the boy “puffed out his chest in defiance” and continued to argue with the officer, the report shows. As another officer approached, the boy “squared up” as if to challenge the officers, police said. The officers say they pushed the boy away and then pinned him against a cruiser in an effort to arrest him.
Police say the boy resisted and had to be forced to the ground to be arrested.
The boy, reached by phone Monday, denied fighting the girl. He said he was waiting to be picked up by a family member who was running late. He said he was on the phone when police officers approached him.
“I think it was wrong what the police did,” he said. “They overreacted. I don’t hit girls.”
The teen, who is not being identified because he is a juvenile who has not been charged with a serious crime, was driven home by police and will have the misdemeanor heard later in Summit County Juvenile Court.
Meanwhile, other teens in the crowd were shouting and recording the incident with their phones, police said. An officer said the crowd “began to verbally challenge officers’ authority, yelling at them that they couldn’t do what they were doing.”
Hawkins was being escorted from the area and tried to resist the officer, police said. As he was being arrested, the second 16-year-old boy later arrested emerged from the crowd and challenged officers, police said.
The boy refused to leave and was “squaring up and puffing his chest,” police said. After being pushed away, the boy charged back at the officer and was arrested, police said.
Witnesses say the boy’s leg was injured during the arrest.
Phil Trexler can be reached at 330-996-3717 or ptrexler@thebeaconjournal.com. He can be followed on Twitter at www.twitter.com/PhilTrexler.