Police arrested at least nine people in downtown East Lansing over two nights of MSU Welcome Weekend, according to WLNS 6 News, which witnessed the arrests Friday and Saturday.

The arrests followed the East Lansing Police Department's stated prevention-first strategy and a multi-agency deployment of up to 60 officers at any given time. The weekend drew intense media coverage and community monitoring in the wake of a civil rights lawsuit filed over last year's pepper-spraying of two Black men during Welcome Week 2025.

Friday night

WLNS reporters witnessed three arrests in two separate incidents Friday night, Aug. 28. Police have not said why those people were arrested. ELPD Capt. Adrian Ojerio told WLNS on Saturday that he did not yet have an official arrest count for Friday.

No charges have been announced.

Officers on horseback, bikes, drones and a Michigan State Police helicopter were all part of Friday's deployment, along with groups of officers walking through the crowd.

Saturday night

Six more arrests followed Saturday night, Aug. 29, into Sunday morning. WLNS witnessed two people taken into custody just after 1 a.m. after what appeared to be a fight. One person was arrested as bars closed around 2 a.m. Around 2:30 a.m., officers arrested a person lying face-down on the ground; one officer appeared to be holding a Taser. Two more people were arrested in separate incidents around 3 a.m.

At one point Saturday, officers appeared to handcuff someone and then remove the cuffs. WLNS reported it was unclear what led to that interaction.

Rain earlier Saturday evening pushed some students into parking garages and other structures. Police ordered a group gathered in a CVS parking lot to leave.

Department response

ELPD had said ahead of the weekend it would deploy 40 to 60 officers at any given time. WKAR News reported about 100 officers on rotating patrols, with half from partner agencies including MSU's Department of Police and Public Safety and the Oakland County Sheriff's Office. Michigan State Police and the Ingham County Sheriff's Office also assisted.

The city's Neighborhood Resource Specialist team hosted a tent downtown both nights, offering bottled water and giveaways.

East Lansing Mayor Erik Altmann was spotted Saturday night chatting with officers, members of the East Lansing Police Oversight Commission and investigators who appeared to be from the Michigan Liquor Control Commission, WLNS reported.

ELPD had framed the weekend around de-escalation. In a WLNS interview published Aug. 28, Ojerio described the approach: "Early on, if people are just kind of out celebrating, it's our expectation that those officers are mingling and creating those positive contacts so that maybe later on in the evening, somebody might be like, 'Oh, that's a cool officer. We should probably do what he says.'"

The department has not released an official assessment of the weekend or a final arrest count.

2025 pepper-spray fallout

The heavy policing followed a year of fallout from Welcome Week 2025. On Aug. 24, 2025, Mason Woods and Lonnie Smith, two Black men in their early 20s, were pepper-sprayed and arrested outside a downtown Dave's Hot Chicken. Charges against them were later dropped.

The East Lansing Human Rights Commission determined ELPD racially discriminated against Woods and Smith and ordered $50,000 in restitution for each man. As of Aug. 24, neither man had received payment, according to their attorney Jack Rucker of Nova Law. Woods and Smith have filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city and officers, alleging excessive force, false arrest and libel.

The Coalition for Justice, a group formed in response to the 2025 incidents, patrolled downtown Saturday from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. to monitor police-community interactions and hand out food and water.

MSU classes begin Tuesday, Sept. 1.