DPS response disappointed student hurt in altercation


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David Carlisle, the interim chief of Department of Public Safety issued the incident report to the Los Angeles Police Department and USC Student Affairs. (Jenna Peterson | Daily Trojan)

A scratch soccer game between a group of USC students and visitors escalated into physical assaults and battery at Brittingham Intramural Field on Aug. 30, resulting in the Los Angeles Police Department detaining a student who was later hospitalized.

Tony Yuan, an international graduate student studying applied economics and econometrics, was beaten by multiple visitors on the soccer field after he allegedly touched the groin area of Jaime Iniguez, identified in the DPS report as the primary suspect in the incident — which caused serious bleeding on his face.

“He and his friends [started] beating me … Someone just held my hair and punched my face, and someone kicked my leg. I must do some self-defense, so I fought someone [as well],” Yuan said.

There were more than 12 people who witnessed the incident at the Brittingham Field, some of whom helped de-escalate the violence and called USC’s Department of Public Safety for help immediately.

“When they threw a bottle and the fight began, a lot of us were shocked and even [had] no reactions. Only me and several friends came to help Tony. I mean, not to fight but grab them out of the fight,” said Peiheng Huang, a graduate student studying applied economics and econometrics who witnessed the incident.

David Carlisle, the interim chief of DPS, confirmed with the Daily Trojan that DPS officers arrived at the scene after receiving the report. LAPD officers then detained Yuan and Iniguez at the Southwest Community Police Station. Later, both parties were released, and Yuan went to the LAC+USC Medical Center to receive treatment for his injuries sustained during the fight.

After the incident, Jeffrey Wang, a senior majoring in math, who has more than 15,800 followers on Instagram, posted the video of the incident on his account. The video accumulated 40,000 views, before the platform took down the video for unknown reasons.

“I usually play with these guys regularly… we are super familiar with each other,” Wang said. “Because I have more influence than others on Instagram, I think I am the best one to send the videos out to make more influence on the matter.”

The spread of the videos online also gathered attention of who may be related to the visitors involved in the altercation. 

According to Wang, an anonymous account messaged him on Instagram with racial slurs, and threatened to “send [his] friends on [Wang’s] page.”

Senior Jeffrey Wang uploaded a viral video of the incident, garnering 40,000 views. Instagram took down the video after some viewers left aggressive comments targeting graduate student Tony Yuan. (Jenna Peterson | Daily Trojan)

Instagram took down the video clips uploaded onto Wang’s account the next day, and Wang suspects that it may be because of the graphic content of the video and people leaving aggressive comments.

Carlisle said that DPS completed the investigation of the incident and sent a report to LAPD. At the time of the report, neither Yuan nor Iniguez wanted to place the other one under arrest, and the city attorney will review all of the facts to determine if he needs more information or to file charges.

However, Yuan and others said they were disappointed by the University’s reaction, and that DPS should better protect students’ interest and safety, as similar incidents have occured on campus multiple times.

“The school still did not give me any explanation for that,” Yuan said. “Because this is not the first time [that students are] having conflict [with non-USC visitors]. So, we just want to have more focus [on the issue] to force USC and DPS to come up with better policies to improve the safety on campus.”

Students also blamed the school’s reaction for making them afraid of playing soccer on campus.

“I refuse to go [to Brittingham]. Even though I am just a witness… I still get a lot of shocks because the school did not [have] any reactions,” said Huang.

Carlisle also said the incident has been reported to USC Student Affairs, where officials will discuss whether visitors should be using the recreational facilities on campus, in hope to limit these kinds of conflicts in the future.

“There have been discussions about limiting the use of the field, that [decision] will be made by senior leaders of the University,” Carlisle said. “But no final decisions have been made.”