AMHERST — A student whose arrest earlier this week is the subject of a review by the University of Massachusetts chancellor was taken into custody after he allegedly shoved a police officer on a work detail while trying to cross a street at a construction zone, according to the criminal complaint filed in Eastern Hampshire District Court.
The statement of facts written by Officer Spencer Hotz reveals that the officer was on patrol at 9:51 a.m. at Commonwealth Avenue and Campus Center Way, where a new sidewalk is being built by contractor Warner Brothers, when he gave orders to Antael K. Rosa, 21, not to cross and to stay out of the road. Instead, Rosa entered the road and then refused to move out of Commonwealth Avenue once in the middle of the street.
The initial physical contact was then made by the officer. “At this time, I saw a large vehicle approaching (at this point there was heavily traffic and we were both still in the road). I placed a hand on Rosa, to guide him out of the road,” Hotz writes. “Rosa then shoved me.”
That shoving continued, though Rosa and Hotz made it out of the road, and then once at the police cruiser Rosa refused a command to turn around, and was then placed into custody with assistance of a second officer.
Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy wrote in a message to the community this week that the matter will be examined, due to concerns that have been voiced by students and faculty who witnessed the incident.
Hotz notes the danger posed to motorists and pedestrians by Rosa’s actions, and that he could have lost his own balance, and also cites in his statement the dangers to pedestrians on campus over the past year.
“This community care-taking function is in place to ensure that no pedestrians are injured or killed as a result of a motor vehicle collision,” he wrote. “In the past year, UMass has had three motor vehicle vs. pedestrian accidents, one of which was a fatality.”
Rosa will appear in court on Jan. 3 for a pretrial hearing.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
