SALISBURY, N.C. — New video obtained by Channel 9 shows multiple young people fighting as law enforcement swarmed the scene at the annual Cheerwine Festival this past weekend in Salisbury.
Two of the officers got seriously hurt, and the sheriff is upset. He says it’s happening too much, and he wants to hold the juveniles and their parents accountable.
“[The] fight was short-lived, officers were there quickly and responded. Unfortunately two officers sustained serious injuries,” said Rowan County Sheriff Travis Allen on Tuesday.
Allen says Salisbury police did a great job securing the 80,000-person event. He blamed the violence near the end of the festival on a group of a dozen or so minors, and their parents.
“We don’t hold the most important people accountable, not the kids, not the parents who are not keeping up with their kids, who have no idea where they’re at or what they’re doing, or they do but they can’t control them,” Allen said.
The sheriff says one deputy suffered a broken hip in the fight when he got caught at the bottom of a pile with his leg in an awkward position.
“The juveniles were apprehended but later had to be released,” the sheriff said.
Allen says there’s no one person to blame for their release.
“My concern is what we’re operating under as a whole -- law enforcement, DA, courts, juvenile services -- is an inadequate system,” Allen said. “It’s not anyone’s fault in the system. You see people saying well who’s the person who let them go? It’s not a who, it’s a what. It was a system.”
The sheriff didn’t give ages or criminal histories of the juveniles involved, but he said they had to be released because the incident didn’t meet the requirements to hold them under state law.
As for their parents, Allen says the charge of “contributing to the delinquency of a minor” is too vague and hard to prove. He wants to create a new law, even if it takes years.
Allen said the Salisbury Police Department is looking into whether or not the fight was gang-related.
(VIDEO: Six local high school students competing in Cheerwine Festival T-shirt design contest)
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