SALT LAKE CITY — Officers continued Friday to investigate various fights that broke out on the University of Utah campus Wednesday during conservative commentator Ben Shapiro's speech, said U. Deputy Police Chief Rick Mclenon.
A number of cellphone videos were submitted to police after the three-hour protest, Mclenon said. Officers were working on identifying people involved in the assaults through these videos and other surveillance.
The University of Utah spent around $25,000 on security during the controversial event, U. Police Chief Dale Brophy said. The cost was offset in part by other police departments volunteering help.
The security tab is about what it costs to police a home football game, he said.
About 300 people marched on the U. campus Wednesday. The protests were mostly peaceful, although several fights broke out between protesters and supporters.
One scuffle occurred between an African-American woman who was protesting and a white man wearing a red "Make America Great Again" hat. Beto Hatch said he and the woman were talking about race relations when they exchanged some heated words and the woman struck him. He responded by hitting back. Police broke up the fight within seconds. The exchange was caught on camera.
"There was a lot more violence coming from the other side than anything I perpetuated or did," Hatch said Friday. "This was a defensive, reactionary move."
Several individuals were detained after the fight, although police didn't find all the individuals involved, according to Mclenon. No one was cited and everyone was eventually released, although there is a criminal investigation underway related to the incident.
Another fight began when police say a woman deployed a Taser at a man after a verbal altercation. Officers quickly intervened, and both individuals were detained.
An 18-year-old woman was arrested by U. police and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of aggravated assault, according to police records. The man was released.
Police also arrested another woman in a separate incident and issued a citation for disorderly conduct and destruction of property, Mclenon confirmed.
About 60 officers from local and federal agencies stood along the march route and outside the auditorium during the event.
Brophy and other university administrators traveled to the University of California, Berkeley campus to research how to handle the speech. The school spent $600,000 on security when Shapiro spoke there earlier this month.
"This is what free speech looks like on a university campus," said school spokesman Chris Nelson after the U.'s event, calling the event a success in balancing freedom of speech and valuing diversity.
Shapiro was invited by the U.'s chapter of Young Americans for Freedom with Young America's Foundation, a national conservative youth organization that also helped bring Shapiro to the Berkeley campus.
The university chapter paid for Shapiro's speaking fees, hotel room and flights, although the university's group declined to release the total financial information at the time.
Nearly 400 people attended the speech, which continued uninterrupted despite the protests outside the venue.