Rap riot in Boston forces police to act

BOSTON -- A rap riot broke out in the middle of Boston Thursday afternoon, and excited fans took it too far, forcing police to act.

A crowd got out of control at an autograph signing at Newbury Comics on Newbury Street.

Anxious fans waited in line for hours to see the group “Odd Future,” but when the crowd reached several hundred people police shut the whole thing down.

Max Rantz-McDonald climbed to the roof of his building to get a bird’s-eye-view.

“It was just insane the amount of people around. It got pretty crazy at one point,” said Rantz-McDonald. “There was a lot of pushing around."

Fans say in order to get autographs they needed to get wristbands Thursday morning, but not many knew that, so when hundreds showed up for the autograph signing store management and Boston police were caught off guard.

“They weren’t letting anyone in for some reason cause there was too much people,” said Tommy Drummond. “They said it was a public emergency or something.”

Police tried to escort the artist out of the back of the building, but the crowd converged on them and an officer slipped and hurt his back. That officer was transported to the hospital. The crowd showed no sympathy and would not give up.

“Nobody was moving. We weren’t going anywhere, we just…I think most of us just wanted to stay to see how crazy this would really get, to see if any of the “Odd Future” guys would come out…because that’s something that’s expected from them. If the cops are here we want to say mayhem, we want to see trouble, we want to see things going down,” said Guillermo Antoni.

Police say one person was arrested - a 13-year-old girl charged with disorderly conduct.

The injured officer has been treated and released from the hospital.

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