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Police: Pa. Man Arrested for Dairy Mart Incident

Posted on: Saturday, 1 April 2006, 12:00 CST

By Natalie Neysa Alund, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.

Apr. 1--A Pennsylvania man was arrested by Morgantown Police early Friday morning on a felony charge of "wanton endangerment with a firearm."

Robert L. Braxton Jr., 24, of Uniontown, Pa., was arrested by Police Officer S.F. Bennett at the Willey Street Dairy Mart, where officers had been called to an fight involving a large number of people, said Morgantown Police Chief Phil Scott.

"No one else was arrested and no one will be arrested," he said.

WVU student Andrew Edwards, who lives in Arnold Apartments facing Willey Street, said he and his roommate were awakened at about 3:30 a.m. Friday by a woman screaming.

They looked out the apartment windows and "saw a crowd of people, 10 to 15 people fighting at the same time," Edwards said. "One man had a trashcan and was beating another with the trashcan."

Scott said officers saw a large crowd when they arrived. Several people pointed to a maroon Ford Explorer trying to leave the parking lot, saying the people in the car had a gun, the chief said.

Officers stopped the car and searched it. They found two handguns, a 9-mm and a .40-caliber, in the glove compartment. Braxton was sitting in the front passenger seat, next to the glove compartment. One of the victims identified Braxton as the person who pointed a gun at him and chased him through the parking lot, Scott said. No one was injured, he added. "My take on it was that it was a verbal thing that escalated," Scott said. Edwards said he and his roommate went outside when police arrived.

"About 12 police cars, the dog unit," he said. "The police pulled their guns; all of them had guns pointed at people. There was a lot of screaming, a lot of fighting, police trying to keep people away. I've never seen anything like that."

Scott said he had not checked on whether officers drew their guns when they arrived at the Dairy Mart.

"Anytime there is a weapon involved, or we have reason to believe an officer or the public is endangered, it would be fully justified to do so," he said.

Scott added that the incident is under investigation. He would not release any additional information.

Edwards said police were at the scene for about an hour.

"A lot of stuff was going on," he said. "They arrested one guy, and a woman was screaming at the police. We could hear screaming, foul language, threats. They were angry at each other. It seemed like different factions fighting with each other."

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.

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Source: The Dominion Post (Morgantown, W.Va.)

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