One of the stab victims, who asked to remain anonymous, said that a group of young men who did not attend the College allegedly "jumped" a group of College students in the corner of Davis basement. When a group of current students and alumni, including this victim, tried to break up the fight, they were stabbed by members of the opposing group.
"I was in shock," he said. "I started getting weak because I guess I was losing a lot of blood. One of my friends saw I was cut, helped me up and then rushed me by car to UMass health services." From there, he was taken by ambulance to Cooley Dickinson Hospital.
According to Chief of Campus Police John Carter, a resident of Pond Dormitory called campus police at 3:36 a.m. to report that there was a large group gathered outside of Davis and that it looked like a fight would escalate. Once campus police arrived on the scene, a witness told them that they had seen a non-Amherst student with what appeared to be a knife. Campus police was soon able to identify and isolate this suspect and escort him to the Amherst Police Department.
Students and alumni chased a second suspect after the fight moved outside. The chase ended, according to Carter, when town police found a group of students near their police headquarters. The police identified a second suspect and asked the students and alumni who had followed the second suspect to come into town police headquarters, where they made witness statements, according to a class of 2002 alumnus who witnessed the incident.
According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, after an initial investigation, Amherst resident Christopher Gray, 17, was arrested and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, a glass bottle. Town police also arrested Amherst resident Jason Stinson, 19, and charged him with assault with a dangerous weapon, a straight-edge razor blade.
"We believe there is probably a third party involved," said Carter, who based this on information from witnesses. Carter said that the investigation is still open and that while town police are in charge of the investigation, campus police will play a supportive role by providing them with any information they can.
Carter said that there has never been a stabbing in his four years at the College. "This is unusual for Amherst," he said. "It's a very scary matter. But is does speak to the kind of issues that can arise with these large parties."
One female student at the party was also shocked at the level of violence in this particular fight. "I've witnessed other fights at Amherst before, but this one really honestly scared me," she said. "We were in such a confined space and guys were just coming out of nowhere and throwing punches [and] acting psychotic."
"I didn't leave the basement, but I definitely ran and got out of the way as soon as possible," the female witness said. "[The fight] got broken up [or] moved elsewhere before I knew it, so I didn't leave right away. But looking around at people's faces and bodies, there was blood everywhere."
The class of 2002 alumnus who witnessed the fight in the basement, said that one of the men was threatening people with a large glass bottle and another man had a knife with a bright green handle.
Despite the fact that some current students were involved in the altercation, Carter said he "does not foresee [campus police] taking any action" against them.
"This wasn't anyone's fault at Amherst," said one of the stabbing victims. "This was really all people outside of Amherst who brought this to us."
The fight in Davis was not the only instance of violence over Homecoming weekend. According to Carter, there was an unrelated assault at 1:45 a.m. on Sunday with no weapon involved, in which words were exchanged between an alumnus and a current student. "The alum alleges that the student then struck him from behind as he tried to walk away," said Carter. Campus police are waiting to hear from the victim to determine if they will seek a criminal complaint, according to Carter, who also said that campus police is looking for a possible witness that yelled out of the window of Pratt Dormitory when the assault took place.