A spring break party at University of California Santa Barbara quickly turned ugly, leaving dozens injured and almost 100 people arrested. Among those injured at the “Deltopia” party in Isla Vista were a campus police officer and five Santa Barbara sheriff’s deputies.
The party drew around 15,000 people, who are mostly students at UC Santa Barbara and area colleges. According to KABC, officials arrested 56 people before the party even got out of control. There were also 49 citations issued and 44 people rushed to an area hospital with injuries.
Around 8 p.m., sheriff’s deputies responded to two stabbings. According to 89.3 KPCC, the UC officer was hurt when he was hit in the head with a bag full of bottles of alcohol around 9 p.m. He suffered a “significant” head injury.
When the suspect was arrested, the crowd responded by throwing rocks, bricks and bottles, according to the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department. Next, authorities called it an unlawful assembly, but things only escalated “into a major disturbance,” the SBSD said. People started ripping traffic signs, lighting fires and throwing more objects.
Law enforcement used tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets, but the crowd did not break up until 1 a.m.
UC Santa Barbara freshman John Meza, 18, told KPCC that the people may have been annoyed that Deltopia didn’t turn out to be as big as they hoped. “I feel like these out-of-towners came in expecting music and dancing in the street, and when they didn't get that, they started tearing out stop signs and burning s*** on the street,” he said.