 Police and university officials were tight-lipped Monday about what witnesses have described as a multiple-person assault that happened at about 9:30 p.m. Sunday in the Rather Hall lounge.
Witnesses and students involved in the incident said a group of 15 to 20 men, who some described as MSU football players, stormed into the dormitory and hit and injured about seven students, some of them women.
Brent Mitchell, a communication junior who said he was sent to Lansing’s Sparrow Hospital after being punched in the face, said some of the men wore ski masks, but others were recognized as football team members.
MSU police directed all questions regarding the incident to University Relations, which issued a statement saying police were investigating an altercation involving several people. MSU spokesman Terry Denbow said the fight involved multiple victims and suspects.
MSU associate athletics director John Lewandowski said questions about the incident should be directed to Denbow.
Denbow said he was not aware of any arrests and did not know further details about injuries sustained by those involved.
“Investigation is continuing,” he said. “I can’t go beyond that.”
MSU suffered a similar situation about this time last year when MSU Football Player Glenn Winston attacked MSU Hockey Player AJ Sturgis and ended up doing 6 months in slammer.
Michigan State football players Glenn Winston and Roderick Jenrette have been kicked off the team "for violation of team rules," coach Mark Dantonio said in a statement Tuesday.
It was not immediately known if MSU's decision to dismiss the players from the team was in any way related to the fight that took place at Rather Hall on MSU's campus Sunday.
Witnesses told the State News, MSU's student-run newspaper, that football players were involved in that altercation.
Winston and Jenrette both played significant roles on the MSU team this season before being injured.
Winston, a running back from Detroit Denby, played in six games before tearing an anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in the sixth game against Illinois. Jenrette, a safety from Tampa, Fla., was injured in the fifth game (broken foot) against Michigan and also missed the remainder of the season.
Winston spent about four months in the Ingham County Jail earlier this year for two misdemeanor assault convictions. He pled guilty to assaulting MSU hockey player A.J. Sturges during an off-campus altercation in the fall of 2008.
He was given a 180-day sentence in April but was released early because of his participation in an inmate worker program.
Winston remained on scholarship while in jail and was reinstated to the team upon his release.
Dantonio was criticized by many observers for allowing Winston to return to the team.
"It's important to recognize that we deeply regret the situation," Dantonio said during MSU's football media day in August. "It should have never happened, but with that being said, we have to support Glenn."
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