1 student off team, probe continues
By NORTHWESTERN NEWS
STAFF
A fight broke out and left one man in the hospital, one dismissed from the football team and posts that made their way on Facebook.
The incident occured late Saturday night at the Nite Lite, an 18-and older club, located at 1220 Lane St., that cators to the university crowd Thursday through Saturday nights.
Steve Valencia, vice president of University Relations, said, “We have an ongoing investigation that we are conducting.”
When asked about what kind of investigation the school was doing, Valencia said administrators are conducting interviews with students and looking at videos that have been posted on social media.
The only action the university has taken is to dismiss one student-athlete from the football team, but Valencia declined to name the student.
Football players said coaches told them to not talk about the incident or go to the Nite Lite for the remainder of the year. Other campus coaches have also put the Nite Lite off limits for their players, particularly during their seasons.
The concerned mother of Garrett Lagan, Denise Lagan of Enid, posted on Facebook about the altercation. “My son tried to do what he thought was right,” she wrote, “And help break up the fight consisting of nine individuals beating up on one.”
Lagan wrote that her son was just trying to protect another young man who was taking a brutal beating. No information was available about the identity or condition of this victim.
“My son had to be transported by ambulance to the hospital, where he had to have a CT scan of his head and x-ray of his knees,” Lagan wrote. In her post Lagan also wrote that it took a highway patrolman with a baton to end the fight. “This was not a good’ olé boy bar fight,” she wrote.
Under-Sheriff Keith Dale said the sheriff’s office has jurisdiction over the case. The Nite Lite is located on the edge of the city and both city and county officers responded.
Officers are working with campus officials to identify those who were involved. Dale said he cannot confirm or deny whether or not the people involved were students or members of the community.
Dale was not present for the incident. The office has only the video surveillance from the Nite Lite and videos that were posted to social media.
Dale said he expects criminal charges to be filed with the district attorney’s office in the future of the investigation. The investigation is still undergoing.
According to former employee of the Nite Lite Montana McCullough, only two or three big fights occur a semester, depending on the size of the crowd.
Usually fights were broken up easily by either people in the crowd or the bouncers, she said.When she worked there, she said the bouncers were just able to pull the people involved in the fight apart in almost all cases.
If any one of the employees saw something about to happen they could step in and talk to them or kick them out of the bar, in order to prevent anyone from getting hurt McCullough said. Also usually at least one cop is around at closing time to make sure everyone is safe and to stop any potential fights.
Mark Bellah, who owns the club, did not return messages for a comment.
(Montana McCullough, Nick Perkins, Capri Gahr and Deitra Wedd contributed to this report.)