Complaints After 15 Revelers Held

Police arrested 15 people during a raucous celebration in Westwood after UCLA defeated Arkansas for the NCAA basketball championship, but some revelers complained Tuesday that officers unnecessarily roughed up students and others.

Fourteen people were booked for failure to disperse and one was detained for battery on a police officer, said Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Rigo Romero. More than 200 riot-helmeted officers were called in after an estimated 5,000 revelers poured onto the streets Monday night.

Police fired rubber bullets at some in the crowd after beer bottles were thrown at them. Romero said there were no reported injuries.

UCLA student Matthew Vujovich, one of several revelers who complained that police sometimes overreacted, said an officer shot him in the back of the neck with a rubber bullet from four feet away.

LAPD Lt. John Dunkin called Vujovich’s account absurd.