Police: 3 women were injured by fireworks on University of Minnesota campus

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Many lives were endangered near the University of Minnesota last weekend when Minneapolis police say someone tossed a firework into a crowd at a Halloween party.

Explosions and sirens took over the night on Saturday, as senior student Wes Lideen was sitting in his room at the Beta Theta Pi house, "Literally just like a big boom and sounded like a bomb went off," Wes described.

Three people were injured after someone apparently threw a firework into a crowd in the 1600 block of University Avenue.

"There’s a potential for some lifelong scars that are going to result from this one," Minneapolis Police spokesperson Garrett Parten said. "I can only imagine what the parents of these young ladies are thinking and imagining, it makes me sick to my stomach to think that anybody would throw an explosive into a crowd."

The female victims range in age from 18 to 19 years old. The incident which involved them was just one of four involving fireworks in the area, over about a four-hour span.

A few blocks away, workers at Frank and Andreas confirmed fireworks were fired toward a crowded line outside of their restaurant.

However, when police arrived, officers say a large crowd scattered and no one appeared to be injured.

"It’s not funny, and if people were doing this in fun or thinking it was a joke, it’s not, this is a serious crime," Parten said. "It is equal to firing a gun into a crowd because the effect can be the same if a firework-like that goes off near somebody’s head. It can result in death."

Now, police are gathering surveillance video to find the suspects. While each of the four incidents is being investigated separately, investigators are looking for any similarities and possible connections between them.