Brawl erupts between up to 20 family members at Bay Area funeral
Amy Graff - SFGATE
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A massive brawl broke out between up to 20 family members during a funeral for an elderly woman in Richmond on Aug. 6, leading to one injury, one arrest and $20,000 in damage, officials said.
The Richmond Police Department said it responded to the Rolling Hills Memorial Park at 1:30 p.m. after several reports of a "chaotic altercation" between eight to 20 family members who were reportedly armed.
Sgt. Aaron Pomeroy said it was an instance of family drama that started between a brother and a sister who were attending their mother's funeral and who do not get along — and "it goes back many years."
The brother and sister sister were talking and got into an argument, when her boyfriend came over and encouraged her to walk away, Pomeroy said.
"The brother started beating on the boyfriend, and that's when it escalated and it became a brawl and we started to get calls," he said.
At some point during the physical fight, the brother got into the vehicle with the intention of driving over his sister, Pomeroy said.
"He attempted to drive toward his sister in an aggressive way, but instead he struck another female and sent her to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries," he said. The victim is 33 years old.
In the car, the brother also damaged the grass, knocked over and damaged headstones and vases, and broke a water main that ejected copious amounts of water and flooded the funeral plot, Lt. Matt Stonebraker, a spokesperson for the department, said.
The driver also reportedly knocked over the casket, but Stonebraker said the body didn't fall out.
When the brother got out of the car, a family member hit him in the head with a cane, injuring him, Pomeroy said.
"They used the cane to try to get him under control," he said. "The suspect was hit a couple times. The cane came from someone who was at the funeral. I don't know that they ever identified where the cane came from."
"We sometimes get family disputes at the cemetery or at the church," Stonebraker said. "This was no different, but it was an especially large family fight and they said possibly armed. This one went above and beyond. Usually you don’t get the injuries. In this case it looked like they had some really bad blood."
No shots were fired and no guns were found.
The brother, a 36-year-old from Bay Point, was arrested for felony assault with a deadly weapon and vandalism. Pomeroy said the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office is reviewing the charges.
Rolling Hills Memorial Park said it could not comment on the incident as it’s under police investigation. Police said preliminary estimates from the park suggest the fight caused $20,000 in damage.
