October 22, 2004 6:44 AM

Was it worth it?

College student dies after police shoot projectile into postgame crowd

What happened to her should not happen to any American citizen going to any type of game, no matter what. She loved the Red Sox. She went in to celebrate with friends. She was a bystander. She was out of the way, but she still got shot. Awful things happen to good people. My daughter was an exceptional person.

  • Rick Snelgrove

No one should ever have to bury a child. The death of an offspring is always a horribly cruel turn of events. How do you explain to a grieving parent that the death of their children was a terrible mistake? This is the task facing the Boston Police Department.

Yes, there were Red Sox fans who were celebrating in a disorderly fashion in Kenmore Square outside Fenway Park early yesterday morning. By all accounts, Tori Snelgrove was not among them. Ms. Snelgrove was merely an innocent bystander, guilty only of being at exactly the wrong place at exactly the wrong time.

To their credit, the Boston PD has accepted full responsibility for Ms. Snelgrove’s untimely and unfortunate death. I doubt that does much of anything to assuage Mr. Snelgrove’s grief and anger. He will never get to see his daughter’s college graduation, never get to give her away on her wedding day, never get to be present at the birth of his grandchild. All of those milestones a parent looks forward to celebrating with their child have been denied to the Snelgroves. Who’s going to make them whole? Certainly not the Boston Police Department.

BOSTON — A 21-year-old college student died Thursday of a head injury after a clash between police and a crowd of Red Sox fans who poured into the streets outside Fenway Park to celebrate their team’s victory over the New York Yankees.

Victoria Snelgrove, a journalism major at Emerson College in Boston, was shot in the eye by a projectile fired by an officer on crowd-control duty. The nature of the projectile was not immediately identified but the weapons are meant to be non-lethal.

During a news conference carried live on local television stations, Boston Police Commissioner Kathleen O’Toole expressed the department’s sympathies to Snelgrove’s family and said the agency “accepts full responsibility for the death of Victoria Snelgrove.

“The Boston Police Department is devastated by this tragedy. This terrible event should never have happened,” O’Toole said.

Snelgrove, of East Bridgewater, was among 16 people hurt in Boston’s Kenmore Square neighborhood early Thursday morning, after thousands of fans spilled out onto the streets to celebrate the Red Sox winning the American League pennant. She died at Brigham and Women’s Hospital later in the day.

“It appears from evidence we have reviewed thus far that Tori was killed when she was hit in the eye by a projectile fired as officers tried to control mobs outside the ballpark,” O’Toole said. “Designated officers were equipped with less-lethal systems that use projectiles designed to break upon impact, dousing the target with (pepper-like) spray.”

O’Toole and Mayor Thomas Menino pledged to fully investigate the incident.

Of course, no amount of investigation will bring Victoria Snelgrove back. While there is blame that can be justifiably placed upon the Boston PD for what can only be explained as a horrific accident, there is also some that can and must be placed on those celebrating outside Fenway Park. If not for a poorly behaving minority that necessitated the presence of riot-control police, Ms. Snelgrove might still be alive and worrying about her next Journalism class assignment.

One can only hope that everyone involved will take a lesson away from this tragic incident. Yes, Boston is in the World Series, and it has an opportunity to win it’s first championship since 1918. Historical significance and years of extended futility and frustration aside, this is, after all, only a game we’re talking about. Is celebrating the success of your team worth the response that violent civil disobendience and joyous, destructive mayhem can provoke? Ask Rick Snelgrove.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on October 22, 2004 6:44 AM.

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