ALTON, IL (KPLR)—
It was a chaotic independence day at the Oakwood Housing Complex in Alton, IL. Beginning on Sunday morning, continuing into early Monday morning, a mob assaulted police and firefighters with bottle rockets and a teenage girl claims she was hit in the forehead by a police pepper ball.Firefighters say they needed police help when they went to put out a dumpster fire. Fire Chief Greg Bock of the Alton Fire Department says a mob of more than 300 began aiming fireworks at his men. He says police retaliated with pepper ball guns and the young girl required hospital treatment.
"They were aimed at our folks and a lot went overhead and some underneath. Some of them hit the truck," Bock said.
"They ran toward me and started to shoot their pepper guns," said Mikeia Brown, claiming police shot her with the crowd control device.
Police Chief David Hayes says he's not sure that it was a police pepper ball that hit the teenager. He says he's studying housing authority surveillance tapes but would not comment further.
