MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Morgantown Police Department has chosen to offer more details into what prompted officers to use crowd-dispersing tactics at a North High Street house party the weekend before St. Patrick’s Day.

Morgantown Police Chief Eric Powell discussed the decision to use the tactics on WAJR’s Talk of the Town on Wednesday, where he affirmed that the officers made the right decision to use inert smoke and PepperBalls to disperse a crowd that was reportedly becoming violent towards them. Powell reported that he made the final call on the disbursement, which he felt was justified based on video evidence from the incident.

“I supported the decision, I thought it was the correct thing to do based on the information I was getting,” said Powell. “In review of all the things that I saw, not only from the social media post, but also from our own officers, I still believe it was the correct decision,” he said.

According to Powell, which was confirmed through bodycam and video evidence that went onto social media, officers responded to the residence on North High Street at approximately 2:40 p.m. on Saturday, March 8, after receiving reports of a large party with loud music, causing noise violations.

Upon arrival at the scene, officers directed the operator of the stereo system to turn off the music to comply with noise regulations, which caused the crowd to turn aggressive. Once projectiles started to be thrown at officers, Powell supported the decision to use crowd dispersal tactics.

“The presence of the officers, combined with the turning off of the music, upset a good many of the partygoers,” said Powell on WAJR’s Talk of the Town. “And they began throwing full bottles of alcohol and cans at officers, directed at officers, almost striking one,” he said.

Powell also noted that this was the only heavily attended house party in Morgantown that responded aggressively to officers during the weekend before St. Patrick’s Day. During what was the last weekend for West Virginia University students before the start of spring break, Morgantown police officers responded to two other calls related to house party noise, both of which resulted in no aggressive response from partygoers. With other interactions not resulting in aggressive responses, Powell feels it shows that the officers on scene took appropriate action based on the environment surrounding the call.

“This was not the only loud party that we responded to, and it wasn’t the only loud party that we broke up,” said Powell. “It’s just the only loud party that we had to take the measures we took because of the size and the nature of the crowd,” he said.

The Morgantown Police Department also confirmed that an investigation is still ongoing to determine if any assault charges are issued to people who threw projectiles at the responding officers. This will include the review of bodycam footage as well as videos that surfaced on social media that showed multiple angles of officers using PepperBalls and inert smoke. While no arrests have been made, Powell states that every piece of evidence will be reviewed, with the department expected to prosecute anyone who is shown to have thrown projectiles at officers.

“We are trying to determine right now if we can identify any of the subjects that were involved in throwing the projectiles at officers,” said Powell. “It’s a little difficult because of the distance involved, but we’re still efforting that,” he said.