Cairo residents protest police use of pepper spray at game

METROPOLIS, Ill. -- After Cairo's No. 1-ranked Class A boys' basketball team lost to rival Massac County in a regional final here last week, a brawl erupted that escalated into chaos as police sprayed pepper spray at the overflow crowd and Cairo's head coach and one of its cheerleaders were taken to the hospital.

Police in this small Ohio River town near Kentucky are investigating Friday night's game, the high school sports association is considering punishing the schools and both communities are blaming each other.

Coaches and administrators of mostly white Massac County contend no one at the school was in the wrong, but many residents of mostly black Cairo say they were unfairly targeted. They also want to know why police used pepper spray to break up the melee.

"They were lined up spraying us, (they) didn't care there were children and families there," said Marlene Schultz of Cairo, who was standing by her pregnant daughter, Marlene Schultz II, on the bleachers during the brawl. "It was racism," Schultz said. "That's what I see."

Massac County High School Principal Danny Stevens said the problem was all Cairo's.

"When the coach got hit and there was blood on the floor, it got out of control on their side," he said. "To us, there's nothing to investigate."

The brawl, which began just after the game and ended about five minutes later, was caught on tape by a school video camera and several television stations.

After fights break out, one officer, his back to Massac's side, sprays something into the Cairo crowd, which lurches back. Two more officers then run in front of the first and spray something, too, prompting Cairo fans to fall and scatter.

Days after the melee, Cairo cheerleader Quanita Vaughn, 14, remained hospitalized with a broken rib and internal bruises.

Vaughn said she was trampled after police sprayed pepper spray at Cairo fans standing around her.

"I put my hands up at my face so he (a police officer) couldn't Mace me," Vaughn said from her Cape Girardeau, Mo., hospital bed. "Then I was on the ground, and people were stepping on me like a rug."

Metropolis Police said they're reviewing videotape "to identify individuals responsible for acts of violence" after the game. Chief Mike Worthen declined to answer questions, so it was unclear whether arrests had been made or whether players had been involved.

"It appears quite clear to me that the police officers on the scene acted appropriately," Worthen said in a prepared statement.

A spokesman for the Illinois State Police also declined to comment, referring questions to Metropolis.

The director of the Illinois High School Association has said the organization is investigating the incident and could impose a range of penalties, with the most severe being expulsion from the IHSA.

Massac County beat Benton 67-35 Wednesday to advance to the sectional championship against West Frankfort on Friday.