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Last updated: Monday, Feb. 6, 3:17 a.m.
News

Four arrests made at The Roots concert

By William P. Davis
Posted on March 22, 2010, at 2:03 a.m.
Police detain an unindentified man outside The Roots concert at the Field House on Saturday.
William P. Davis | The Maine Campus
Police detain an unindentified man outside The Roots concert at the Field House on Saturday.

Four people were arrested at Saturday night’s The Roots concert amid tight security.

Two University of Maine students were arrested. Colin Mcguire, 19, of Laconia, N.H., was arrested for criminal trespass and Stefan Wollmar, 20, of Old Town was arrested for assault and resisting arrest. Orono residents Brian Roach, 23, and Muna Abdullahi, 22, were arrested for criminal trespass and disorderly conduct, respectively.

Concertgoers were wanded with metal detectors and patted down before entering the Field House. Thirty contracted security personnel and 12 police officers were present for the concert.

According to Abtin Mehdizadegan, former vice president for Student Entertainment, not all concerts have this level of security. He said students were patted down before last year’s O.A.R. concert at the Field House, but that there were no metal detectors.

In one instance Saturday, at least three police officers detained an unidentified white male, forcing him to the ground before handcuffing him.

“I was a little bit upset by how the police were acting,” said Joseph “Patrick” Nabozny, vice president for Student Entertainment. He said officers from the Orono and Maine police departments were on hand to assist private security personnel from Atlantic Protective Services. Student Entertainment hired APS to handle crowd control — including the wanding and pat-downs — while the police stood by.

Nabozny said he did not control what level of security attendees had to go through to get into the concert.

“I don’t want to say it’s blatant racism,” Nabozny said. “But at a venue that size in Maine, you don’t usually require metal detectors. Maybe at a huge hip-hop concert in a city, but not in Maine.”

UMaine Spokesman Joe Carr, speaking on behalf of the UMaine Police Department, said officers have noticed an increased presence of weapons in the area since a recent shooting death of a teenager in Bangor. Carr said this might account for the increased security at the concert Saturday.

“This is a routine way to handle entry of audiences at events like this,” Carr said.

Sgt. Scott Wilcox said the Orono Police Department provided three officers for the concert’s detail, on the request of the UMaine Police Department. Wilcox said OPD has provided officers at concerts before, such as the Dropkick Murphys in 2008 and Dierks Bentley in 2009.

“As for the reasons why they asked for our assistance, I have no idea,” Wilcox said.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 22nd, 2010, 2:03 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.

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  • Stefan Wollmar

    I was the one arrested for assault on Saturday night. Just before being patted down I was told by a man in line to ‘,put my but away.’ I interpreted that as ‘away’ from his face, so I held it above my head as a member of Atlantic Protective Services began to pat me down. The man, also a member of APS, unknown to me, came from behind me as I was being checked and slapped the cigarette out of my hand. I turned around to a full grown man, larger than me, yelling ,’ don’t you know what that means!?’ only inches from my face. After two aggressive actions I was not about to assume he was going to stop there, so I took him to the ground before he could attack me. The police were instantly on top of it.

    Because the police came from behind me as well I did not know who was attacking me, so I attempted to stand up. I thought that it might have been this man’s buddies trying to jump me. Once I realized who they were, which took only a second, I was completely submissive. The police would not hear my case on the scene, but they will in court.

    So, was that the proper way to ask a student and paying customer to put out his cigarette? I didn’t think so. Getting physical with someone who has paid to see a show you are in charge of keeping in control is never appropriate. It seems completely backward, actually.Perhaps if I were being disorderly in the line and they wanted to kick me out of the concert I would understand if they needed to touch me, but that was not the case. I would never attack someone unprovoked, and in this case he was the aggressive one and I honestly thought I was about to get hit. If he never touched me I would never have touched him. Plain and simple.

  • john

    you contradict yourself..” I was not about to assume he was going to stop there, so I took him to the ground before he could attack me” and then you go on to conclude by saying “If he never touched me I would never have touched him” The fact of the matter is you were smoking in line which i personally don’t care, but many people don’t like the smell of cigarettes and you didn’t comply with the request. Either way, you said you acted first therefore you will get the assault charge.