STARKVILLE — Police made a fifth arrest Friday in the investigation of a Cotton District fistfight in the early morning hours of Sept. 8.
Elijah Nelson, 21, of Biloxi, was arrested on a simple assault charge, a misdemeanor, for his participation in a brawl on the lawn outside St. Joseph Catholic Church on University Drive. The fight was caught on video and has received thousands of views on social media.
The two men believed to have started the fight were arrested Wednesday, also on simple assault warrants. Stephen Jernigan II of Lake Village, Arkansas, and Harrison Porter of Ridgeland, both 22, are seniors as Mississippi State University.
“After further investigation, we believe these individuals instigated this altercation by verbally assaulting an intoxicated female,” the Starkville Police Department wrote Wednesday on Facebook.
Porter also received a simple assault charge for allegedly physically assaulting a 53-year-old man on University Drive on Sept. 29, 2018, according to court records.
The first two men arrested were Nathan Cvitanovich, 22, of D’Iberville, and Dakota Husser, 23, of Biloxi, also on simple assault warrants.
Cvitanovich is a junior at MSU, and Husser and Nelson are not students there, officials confirmed to The Dispatch.
Dozens of college-age individuals participated in the fight. The incident is still under investigation and more arrests are expected, SPD said on Facebook.
In the video, a man can be seen yelling, taking his shirt off, throwing multiple people to the ground and punching some of them repeatedly.
Others in the video are seen throwing punches, pushing and shoving. Several people can be seen lying on the ground in the churchyard, and first responder vehicles can be seen in the background.
SPD has not provided the call and response times for Sunday’s incident. The Dispatch has received arrest affidavits from municipal court and submitted public records requests for the incident report.
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