Zombie march ends in arrests

DURANGO, Colo. (KRQE) - For the last three Halloweens, hundreds of people have marched peacefully down the sidewalks of Main Avenue in Durango as part of the ‘Zombie March.’ Not this year.

Police said something possessed many of the participants and it wasn’t just booze.

“I think there was probably some facet of the Occupy movement that may have been involved in stirring up the crowd a little further,” said Lt. Ray Shupe with the Durango Police Department.

The crowd started marching in the street blocking traffic.

Officers said at one point people tried to flip a car that was trying to make it through the crowd.

Video taken by Brandon Engle with Ambiguous Films and posted on YouTube shows the crowd marching in the street.

Other video on YouTube shows officers trying to get people out of the street.

Durango police said things started escalating around 1 a.m. when some of the people in the crowd started targeting officers.

“We started taking rocks and bottles from the crowd, sticks, and some lit cigarettes.  At one point full beer cans were thrown at officers and officer vehicles,” Shupe said.

DPD said it had to resort to force.

“We started with the pepper spray; batons were used as well as nonlethal paint marking rounds for folks that were instigating things,” said Shupe.

When all was said and done there were 20 misdemeanor arrests for everything from failure to disperse to obstructing a roadway.

There were two felony arrests as well; including Brandon Friend, 20, who police said attacked an officer as she tried to arrest him.

Officers said it’s amazing no one was seriously hurt.

“It was a pretty big event that could have gone pretty bad pretty quick,” Shupe said.

There have been questions about the officers’ use of force Monday night.  DPD said it will investigate them.

The La Plata County Sheriff's Department and Colorado State Patrol were out there as well.

In total there were 30 officers going up against 1,500 partiers.

The Zombie March is not a city-sponsored event.

You can watch Engle's full video from the march here:  www.youtube.com/watch

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Online Photo Gallery :  Jail booking photos of 20 adults arrested for misdemeanors.