COLUMBIA, S.C. — Video of a party with more than a thousand people in attendance has gone viral on social media. It all happened at an off-campus student housing complex near Williams Brice Stadium om Saturday.
Now, many in the community are upset that it appears USC students are ignoring social distancing guidelines and the University's COVID-19 policies and Columbia's Fire Chief says it's time to stop giving out warnings.
"We always try to educate people first before we start citing them," Chief Aubrey Jenkins said. "I think the education portion is over, and when we see these things happen, we need to write a citation."
Chief Jenkins says his team got a call to assist EMS with a medical emergency. He says they were surprised when they got there.
"When we got down there, it was tons of people, which made it hard for them to get through," Jenkins explained.
Jenkins said thousands of students were partying for the USC versus Auburn football game. He says students threw debris at them when they arrived at the scene.
The University of South Carolina sent News 19 a statement regarding Saturday's incident.
"We have been urging students from the very beginning of the pandemic to conduct themselves appropriately to protect themselves and the community. In instances where students have displayed a blatant disregard for public safety, the university has levied interim suspensions, and we will continue to take action in the future."
News 19 reached out to the property manager but did not receive a response.
Chief Jenkins says he met with the property manager twice on Monday, and he and law enforcement will be meeting with other apartment complexes to discuss how to make sure this doesn't happen again.
"It gets a little tough because we don't know where the parties are," Jenkins said. "The only way we get them is when people call and complain. We respond to every complaint we get, and we investigate them."
News 19 also reached out to the City of Columbia to get a response or action plan following Saturday's incident. They have yet to respond.