Incident Friday night puts police into action at Strawberry Festival

Belleville Police Chief Hal Berriman said an incident at around 8 p.m. Friday in the area of the carnival at Belleville High School was the only big disruption that brought police into action during Strawberry Festival weekend.
He said it was serious when it started, but then it was calmed down.
He said it only lasted an hour and it was mainly juveniles who were involved. He suggested they were venting after the last day of school. He said there were no arrests, but two tickets were issued, one for failure to comply and one for disorderly conduct.
He said no guns were seen by police. There were two reports of people seeing guns, but when police checked it out they found no guns.
Chief Berriman said besides Belleville officers and Belleville Reserves, they had Wayne County Sheriff’s Deputies and Woodhaven Police on the scene. He said Woodhaven helps with Belleville’s festival and then Belleville reciprocates with Woodhaven’s festival.
Second and Main incident
At Monday’s city council meeting, Chief Berriman told of another incident at the corner of Second and Main streets. He said he has received four emails and six phone calls regarding his actions, harshly criticizing him.
“We’ve had these preachers show up for a number of years,” Chief Berriman told the council. “And, there has been no problem as long as they don’t impede traffic.”
He said Officer Trombley and he went out there and he explained the not impeding part to a girl who was holding a big sign. Then a plastic bottle was thrown at one of them and hit the preacher.
He said when Officer Trombley started to go after the female who threw the bottle, he restrained him, telling him not to go after the girl, which would exacerbate the situation.
“In retrospect, it would have been better to get her name,” Chief Berriman said.
Although the preacher called it an assault, he said he wasn’t injured and didn’t want to make a report.
Later, there was another assault, but when police arrived the preacher had left the scene and did not file a report.
“I was harshly criticized for not filing charges, but the victim wouldn’t file charges,” Chief Berriman said. “I didn’t sleep well that night. I should have let Trombley get her name.”
City Manager Diana Kollmeyer said, “That why we love our police chief so much. He didn’t have to explain all this.”