Halloween weekend exits with a whimper

Halloween roared through town on the last Friday and Saturday of October with the expected parties, drunken behavior and accompanying arrests. But by Sunday and Monday, the actual day of celebrating scary stuff, the debauchery for the most part had disappeared.

Chico Police Sgt. Rob Merrifield said back-up crews of police were released by 10 o’clock Sunday night, which saw only 10 arrests and little in the way of activity in the usual public areas.

A press release said several thousand people gathered in the south campus neighborhoods on Friday and Saturday, with the highest concentration at Fifth and Ivy streets, as is expected. Police were kept busy until 3 or 4 a.m. both nights.

Friday saw 49 arrests, 33 for drunk in public, and Saturday had 44 arrests with 24 for drunk in public. A total of 23 Chico State students were arrested and only six Butte College students suffered the same fate.

There were also 22 emergency responses for alcohol overdoses during the same two-day period.

Only 10 arrests were made on Sunday and none of those were Halloween-related. The same low-key activity took place on Monday night. However, a Yuba City man was seriously injured that night at about 10:30 when he was punched in front of the Crazy Horse Saloon by a man wearing a Halloween mask, Merrifield said.

Police found the man lying on the sidewalk, unconscious. He was taken to Enloe Medical Center where he was listed in critical condition with a head injury.

The altercation apparently began inside a nearby bar and moved to the street, where the suspect, described in a police press release as a 20- to 25-year old white man, about 5-foot-9 and 175 pounds, wearing a Halloween mask, reportedly struck the victim just once, knocking him to the ground. Police are also looking for an unidentified woman who reportedly was with the suspect that night.

A few minutes after this incident a man was arrested near the Occupy Chico encampment next to the downtown City Plaza. Records show that Ryan Schonberg was arrested on a charge of drunk in public. Occupier Quentin Colgan said the man, who said he was from Sacramento, grabbed a protest sign and began waving it. He then reportedly began yelling at a police officer, who flipped him down to the sidewalk, cuffed him and made the arrest.

The police were assisted this year by deputies and officers from the Butte, Stanislaus, Glenn, Tehama and Colusa county sheriff’s offices, Chico State police, Alcoholic Beverage Control, the Department of Justice and the Oroville, Paradise, Gridley and Redding police departments.