Concert canceled, students pepper-sprayed at UMES

A homecoming concert at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore was canceled Thursday evening after a disorderly situation erupted at the entrance of the William P. Hytche Athletic Center.

After campus police used pepper spray on the crowd, students and concert-goers now have questions and concerns about how the situation was handled.

At a press conference on Friday, the vice president of student affairs and the chief of police said all actions were taken in an effort to keep students safe.

Vice President of Student Affairs Michael Harp said technological issues in checking tickets resulted in a bottle neck effect for concert-goers entering the building.

Chief of UMES Police Mark Tyler says police were called into help with the resulting congestion.

"Once the crowd pushed through the barrier, or pushed through the front door, and entered the lobby area, it became an unsafe situation and pepper spray was deployed as a means to disperse that crowd," Chief Tyler said.

Many students were outraged that it came to that, calling the use of pepper spray unnecessary.

"It was bad," UMES senior Jonathon Morris said. "I saw students rolling around on the ground pepper sprayed in the face, students crying, even cops coughing from the pepper spray."

Vice President of Student Affairs Michael Harp says the university will actively work to prevent something like this from happening again.

"We'll grow from this situation, we'll learn from this situation and then we'll move forward," Harp said.

UMES officials have announced everyone who purchased tickets to the concert will be refunded, not just the students.

By 3 PM Friday fewer than 300 ticket holders still needed to be refunded. The university plans to reschedule the concert for a future date, though they cannot promise the headliner, Migos, will be able to come back to perform.