PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Three Philadelphia police officers were hospitalized after being pepper-sprayed while responding to a large crowd in University City on Saturday night. Most people in the group were juveniles, police said.
Authorities said the incident happened around 8 p.m. at 40th and Market streets, where a crowd of about 400 to 500 people gathered following homecoming events at the University of Pennsylvania.
"Various social media posts which were inviting people - local residents, juveniles mostly - to this area to hang out, so to speak. That also complicated the issues," Philadelphia Police Inspector DF Pace said.
Police said some in the crowd started to act unruly, so they tried to break it up. That’s when someone pepper-sprayed the officers.
The officers were taken to the hospital and are expected to be OK.
Police arrested several people and were eventually able to disperse the crowd.