Very, Very Sad
This is a very sad day for greeks...no matter who is at fault.
Fraternity Dispute Ends In Deadly Knife Fight
Police Interview Several Witnesses
POSTED: 6:30 a.m. PST January 22, 2003
UPDATED: 5:30 p.m. PST January 22, 2003
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- A 23-year-old man is dead and several others stabbed after a massive street fight between two college fraternities in San Jose.
Students at San Jose State are stunned, reported NBC11's Greg Gurule. School officials have not yet commented on the case.
Police department spokeswoman, Catherine Unger told NBC11 the police department isn't sure what started the fight, "We don't know what the beef was. It looks like two fraternities, both at San Jose State, obviously have some kind of issue with each other. One of the fraternities contacted some of their brothers from a chapter in Santa Cruz," she said.
Gurule said those questioned were released Wednesday afternoon wearing white paper jumpsuits. Police confisgated their clothes to use in their investigation. None was willing to speak on camera, but off camera some students said it was a fraternity fight that got out of hand.
The fraternity community at San Jose State is concerned. Shawn Alonzo of the Chi Epsilon Fraternity told NBC11, "I know a lot of people in both and it just distresses us because that's not how everybody is and I hope that what happened, I believe it is an isolated incident," he said.
FeedRoom
Fraternity Dispute Turned Brawl
According to police, at least 50 people were involved in the fight, which apparently started as a dispute between the two groups Monday. Police believe the two groups decided to settle their differences at Flickinger Park in the Berryessa neighborhood of San Jose at midnight.
A resident called police shortly after midnight to report the men fighting in Flickinger Park, said Sgt. Steve Dixon, a police spokesman.
"They could hear somebody screaming `Somebody's been stabbed!"' Dixon said.
Investigators are interviewing between 30 to 40 people who were involved to figure out what happened. Several arrests have also reportedly been made, but officials have not been able to provide many details.
The dead man was later identified as Alam Kim of Los Altos. It was his 23rd birthday Wednesday.
The men were members of San Jose State's Pi Alpha Phi and Lambda Phi Epsilon fraternities. Pi Alpha Phi members from the nearby University of California, Santa Cruz also participated, Unger told the Associated Press.
The altercation apparently grew from a disagreement at a pool hall on Monday. The exact nature of the dispute was not immediately known, but it escalated to egg throwing and, eventually, the brawl, police said.
"They arrived at an agreement to meet in a park in San Jose to resolve their differences," Dixon said.
The group first gathered at Williams Street Park near downtown San Jose but retreated to suburban Flickinger Park when they spotted police nearby.
"Quite honestly, except for the lack of the tattoos, this is a gang fight," Dixon said. "Instead of gang members, it's frat members."
Several people were taken to hospitals by friends, Unger said. Besides the man who died, three people were treated for stab wounds and one for head trauma.
Dozens of fraternity members and witnesses were being questioned at police headquarters. No arrests were immediately made.
Pi Alpha Phi was established in 1926 at the University of California, Berkeley, by Asian students because existing fraternities discriminated against minorities, according to the group's Web site at San Jose State.
Officials at San Jose State, where the chapter started in 1991, declined to comment on the brawl. In Santa Cruz, the university is not aware of previous trouble from the group, which was set up in 1995, said Elizabeth Irwin, a campus spokeswoman.
Jack Hsia, president of the Lambda Phi Epsilon national organization, declined to comment on the brawl.
"It's so sad because they're college students. You'd think they'd be above this," said Unger of the
|