OLYMPIA, Wash. -- A campus police officer surrounded by a mob of angry concertgoers last week says it was like something out of the novel 'Lord of the Flies.'

Officer April Meyers was trying to arrest a man for investigation of misdemeanor assault early Friday morning during a 'Dead Prez' concert at Evergreen State College.

"Now there's probably 150 people there and they're spitting and yelling," Meyers said of the crowd that formed around her car, demanding that the man she'd arrested be let go.

"It seems like with every passing minute it had turned from aggressive concern and allegations to a mind of it's own -- the crowd mob characteristic. It was just out of control. "

She called for backup, bringing in state troopers and county sheriff's deputies to help.

"I took him out of the car, and uncuffed him, and I got a face full of pepper spray exactly after I uncuffed him," Meyers said.

That is when the now 500-strong crowd boiled over, Meyers said, toppling a patrol car and requiring a SWAT team to fire more pepper spray to get the situation under control.

On Tuesday, hundreds of students at staff at the college crowded a campus lecture hall for a "post-riot" forum.

"This instilled fear in people and this intimidated our officers, but also other students, and no one deserves to feel that way on our campus, no matter what. That's not okay," student Victor Sanders said to a round of applause.

College officials have instituted a moratorium on campus concerts and say they will cooperate fully with police investigations into the incident.

"We have no 100 percent understanding of what did occur, and we never will," said College President Thomas L. Purce. "But one thing I know, and we all have to know, is what resulted is not acceptable by any standard."

Pruce says he's glad no one was killed and pledged that the college will work to reimburse the sheriff's department for the patrol car that was destroyed.

Investigators, meanwhile, have their own were to do and were analyzing blood and saliva samples taken from the police car.

"We're proceeding to see if we can file specific charges against specific people for specific crimes," said Lt. Debbie Mealy.