Kate Jacobson, Chicago Sun-Sentinel, December 30, 2014

What started out as a simple stop for Delray Beach Police quickly turned into a 50-plus person melee.

A group of people formed a human shield to keep police officers from a man who police wanted to detain Saturday in a neighborhood. “The next thing they know, there’s 70 to 75 people out there,” Sgt. Nicole Guerriero said. “The officers had to use pepper spray to get the people back.”

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The events began Saturday night when officers saw a man walking down the road and smoking, Delray Beach Police said. The officers smelled marijuana and decided to stop their police vehicle, according to Sgt. Nicole Guerriero.

But the man quickly scampered away, going into a house near the corner of Southwest Eighth Avenue and Southwest Third Court. Officers tried to talk to the man, but out from the house came about 20 people and they were forming a human shield.

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“They formed this shield and started getting aggressive,” Guerriero said. “Someone hit the officer and pushed him away, they were throwing bottles, they were cursing and screaming at them.”

Two officers, who were sitting in a police cruiser, tried to intervene, but this made things worse. Guerriero said more people started showing up and the crowd grew to upward of 50 people. Officers called for backup.

“The next thing they know, there’s 70 to 75 people out there,” she said. “The officers had to use pepper spray to get the people back.”

When someone would throw a bottle toward officers, the human chain would push the person back behind them and stop officers from making an arrest, she said.

At one point, someone threw an object–either a bottle or a brick–and damaged the windshield of a police cruiser, Guerriero said.

Four were detained in the incident. {snip}

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