DELTA TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A night that was supposed to be a good time turned ugly on Wednesday.
Eaton County Sheriff Tom Reich said there were 60 to 70 police officers from several departments at the fireworks. He said the night requires a lot of resources, so it's upsetting that it took a turn.
"This is a family event and it's for families to enjoy the fireworks and have a night out at the park unfortunately this erupted and we had to deal with it," Reich said.
Once the problems started on Elmwood, police on horseback and ATV's were able to disperse the crowd. The sheriff said usually when something like this happens, it's because of alcohol. But because these were kids, he thinks they just saw and opportunity.
"This had nothing to do with alcohol. This was all juveniles who were unsupervised by their parents, who their parents are probably not even on site, come to Sharp Park and Delta Township to cause problems," Reich said.
He hopes this isolated incident doesn't deter people and families from coming next year.
"What I don't want to happen is people being fearful of going to the park to watch the fireworks. This is a family event and it's going to remain a family event in years to come and we'll make sure that this doesn't happen," Reich said.
The sheriff didn't get into any specific changes he wants to make.
Eight people were arrested and seven of them are juveniles who were later turned over to their parents.
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