After an investigation, the Iowa attorney general’s office has concluded that citizen complaints from last spring’s Veishea riot do not warrant charges of assault against police officers involved.

In a letter written to Story County Attorney Stephen Holmes, the attorney general’s office said the police acted properly when called in to disperse rioters in Campustown on April 18.

Student reaction to the findings was mixed.

Matt Denner, senior in political science, said the result was a sensible decision.

“I don’t know how every police officer behaved, but I doubt there are many, if any at all, police officers who are responsible for gross misconduct,” he said.

Denner, who was a Daily columnist last April, said Sunday that he was at the riot trying to prevent damage. He said he removed objects that could be used as weapons and tried to talk people out of causing further damage.

Denner was charged with interference with official acts after the riot, but those charges were later dropped.

“I think [the police] acted as they thought was appropriate,” he said. “Improvements could be made for such situations, but I don’t think they acted in a malicious manner.”

Not all students agree with Denner. Nicholas Ludwig, senior in finance, said he was at the riot and the police did not behave in the best manner.

“I was there and I saw stuff firsthand,” he said. “I think [the police] took it over the edge a little bit — beating people that had nothing to do with the riot.”

Ludwig said he and a group of friends were Maced when they were walking down Welch Avenue before eventually being chased out of the area.

After learning that the attorney general would not file any charges, Ludwig said what he saw that night should be considered assault.

“What level does it have to go to?” he said.

“Do we have to get the whole school involved to push the level high enough?”

Denner said although the police’s actions were justified, officers could have behaved differently to calm the crowd.

“It would have been sensible to warn the crowd directly before tear gas would be thrown,” he said. “A lot of people became angry after being hit with tear gas and reacted drunkenly in a way they thought was appropriate.”

Ames Police Chief Loras Jaeger said he requested the investigation from Holmes immediately after the riot. Jaeger said he did not want to comment on the investigation’s results because he did not want to dwell on the past.

“We all need to move forward and try to solve this,” he said. “We would like everyone to step in — Ames community, faculty, students — everyone needs to have a play on this.”

These investigation results do not give any type of closure, Jaeger said, because there are many other questions that need to be discussed by everyone.

— Daily staff reports contributed

to this article.