Police, UW Looking Into Incident That Cost Student Eye

University of Washington officials and Seattle police are investigating a weekend fraternity-row fracas in which a student lost her right eye.

Jennifer Wen, 21, a sophomore from Yakima, is recovering in University of Washington Medical Center after treatment for the injury she suffered when hit by a beer bottle early Sunday morning.

Witnesses said Wen and several friends were having a party at her rented house near Greek Row when they heard a commotion at about 2:30 a.m. Sunday.

They went outside and, police reports say arguments broke out between Wen's group and people in the Phi Delta Theta fraternity house.

"Then there was a disturbance between the two groups," said police spokesman Hal Kulgren. "It escalated into a fight and then bottle-throwing and that's when the young lady got hit with a bottle."

Sunny Oh, a witness, said Wen was an innocent bystander.

"One of the guys had thrown this beer bottle so hard, like a baseball, that when it hit her face - you know how glass shatters when you throw it against the wall? That's how it shattered on her face," Oh said.

Wen declined to discuss the incident or her injury in detail except to say, "I'm not in a lot of pain anymore, but it's serious."

Some witnesses said UW football players were involved in the fight. Husky head coach Don James would say only: "There are no players charged at this time, and until there is, I can't make a comment. To my knowledge, right now no players are guilty of any crimes."

The UW's Greek Row - separated from the campus by Northeast 45th Street and concentrated on 17th Avenue Northeast - has been the site of several alcohol-related street brawls in recent years.

University officials say they are limited in how much they can do to control the incidents, because they occur off campus. The fraternity and sorority houses, to which about 10 percent of the 34,000 UW students belong, are owned privately by their respective organizations and are in the jurisdiction of the Seattle Police Department rather than campus police.