The Daily O’Collegian

Stillwater Police officers drew their weapons on five students affiliated with a fraternity and handcuffed them Friday afternoon after a “fraternity prank” was misinterpreted as an aggravated assault, said Capt. Randy Dickerson of Stillwater Police Department.

Dickerson said a dispatcher received a phone call from a witness saying four men were beating another man at a location but Dickerson said he had not been told where the incident took place.

The officers drew their weapons because they had not been told the fight was a “fraternity prank” but the officer’s reaction to the situation was not inappropriate, Dickerson said.

Their reaction was also not in response to a higher level of security because a police officer was shot early Friday morning, Dickerson said.

“I can’t say what the officers were thinking, but that is an appropriate and acceptable way to deal with that,” Dickerson said.

The witness gave the dispatcher a description of the men and the vehicle they had left the location in, Dickerson said.

Police in pursuit of the truck pulled the vehicle over behind the Wal-Mart Supercenter Tire & Lube Express on Virginia Avenue.

Many of the fraternity members who came to Wal-Mart to watch and learn more about the situation had Pi Kappa Alpha decals on their vehicle windows. Police would not confirm which fraternity the men belonged to.

After police stopped the vehicle, they drew their weapons, Dickerson said.

Officers have drawn their weapons hundreds of times in situations where the security level was unknown, he said.

“We get there and want to show enough force to not put our officers in a bad situation,” he said.

The men were then handcuffed and sat on the curb so police officers could question them, Dickerson said.

No one was arrested and the men were released, Dickerson said.

Once the men were released, several of their fraternity brothers began asking them what happened. They responded, angrily screaming that they had just had guns pointed at their heads.

Ival Gregory, manager of fraternity and sorority affairs, said he had not heard about the incident until The Daily O’Collegian called to ask questions.

Gregory said his office will investigate the situation and may work with Interfraternity Council or Student Judicial Affairs, depending on the details of the incident.

“We’ll look into it,” he said. “Aggravated assault is kind of an ugly thing.”