Authorities Respond to Incidents at Olmsted County Fair

Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - The Olmsted County Sheriff's Department and the organizers of the Olmsted County Fair have both issued statements concerning a disturbance at the fair Tuesday evening.

Sheriff's Captain Scott Behrns says deputies assigned to the security detail at the fair responded to an assault on the Midway involving a 14-year-old girl. She told deputies she was struck on the side of the face and knocked to the ground by another 14-year-old girl. She also stated some other juveniles may have also helped pull her to the ground during the incident. The alleged 14-year-old attacker was located in the fairgrounds and was taken to the Many Rivers Juvenile Detention Center to face a misdemeanor assault charge. You can read the full statement from the Olmsted County Sheriff Department below (click to enlarge):

Rochester Police later responded to a report of a large group of juveniles fighting in the parking lot at the Walgreens store across South Broadway from the Fairgrounds. The report said dozens of people were involved. No one was arrested but a police spokesman says a 12-year-old boy may have suffered a broken wrist.

At this point, it is not known if the fracas outside the store was related to the earlier incident inside the fair.

The Olmsted County Free Fair also posted a statement to their Facebook page today regarding safety and security at the fair saying,

While we make every effort to prevent incidents like this from happening sometimes they still do. How we handle it is the key. The safety and security is always our primary goal for all fair goers. In conjunction with Goldstar Amusements and the Olmsted County Fair Sheriffs Department (our onsite security) the call was made to shut the rides down until the incident was handled. We take this matter very seriously and while we had to be reactive in this situation we are being proactive with the situation as a whole. We are working in conjunction with the Sheriffs Department, City Police, Community Elders and variety of others to prevent this type of incident from happening again. This is an isolated incident and the fair is as a whole a safe and fun environment for all.

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