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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
An otherwise quiet neighbourhood was a scene of mayhem as teenage revelers fought police and each other at an out-of-control house party early Sunday morning.

Police were called to a residence on Wilkinson Crescent in the Range Lake subdivision at around 2:15 a.m. after a get-together among a small group of friends escalated into a wild bash after dozens of uninvited guests began to show up.

Five officers responded to the initial complaint from the 17-year-old host and were confronted by 50 and 60 individuals varying in age from their late teens to early 20s, according to police. Officers attempted to move the young people away from the home and out of the street but a number of revelers got into fights outside.

"Really this is something we do see often where parties get out of hand, but they mostly don't turn to this extent of violence," said RCMP Insp. David Elliott.

Police fought youth for 25 minutes using varying degrees of force, including extendable batons and pepper spray before gaining control of the situation.

Elliott said many of the youth present were hostile. Some even jumped on top of RCMP vehicles and tried to rescue friends that had been arrested and placed in the back of police cruisers.

Six people were arrested, and one person charged. Elliot said more charges could be laid depending on the direction of the ongoing investigation.

One neighbour, who asked not to be identified, said she was awoken to the sounds of yelling and fighting sometime between 2 and 2:30 a.m.

"Probably about 15 to 20 people were in the street at that time and in a confrontation with each other," she said. "There were also some people sitting on the sidewalk and I could tell some were probably intoxicated."

The neighbour, who also called police, said she was concerned the young partiers would hurt themselves during the fights, especially as some of the people involved were "not very old."

She said this is the first time she has had to call the police for such an event as the street is generally very quiet.

Another neighbour, Cecilia Martin, said she was awoken at about the same time, but did not see the fighting. She saw about 10 to 20 youths in the street leaving the scene and spotted one of them randomly kicking an object into another neighbour's yard.

"By the time I was awoken and came to the window, it seemed everything had stopped and all were leaving to go back home. It is a very quiet street and you never hear of anything like it. I wasn't too sure when I first heard the people yelling and I actually thought it was the pub over beside the M&M Meat Shop (Hot Shots Pub and Grub). But it was too loud and unusual."

She said her older son, who had a Jeep parked outside, took a drive around the neighbourhood out of fear his vehicle would be vandalized if he had left it parked.

"I'm not going to worry because it is usually very quiet in this neighbourhood and things like this rarely ever happen," said Martin.

"If it does happen again then I will complain."

She said everything had quieted down within an hour of her being woken up and the RCMP did a good job maintaining order.

Elliott said officers will be speaking to people that they can identify and are encouraging those who were on the scene and who had taken videos of the mayhem to contact them. He said the host in this case was fortunate her home did not suffer much damage.

Elliott said one officer received medical attention but was later released. He was unaware of any other injuries.

He said there was no reason to pin blame on the host as the person probably had the best intentions of holding a small party before it quickly was out of control. He pointed out that this can easily happen in an age where news can travel quickly through text messaging and other social media.

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