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Yee-HAW! Y’alls missed a real hootenanny in Berks County, Penn. this weekend, which more than earned my fair state’s name of “Pennsyltucky.” Twenty-five cops from 16 different police departments were allegedly needed to break up a wedding brawl that ended up with seven people arrested, including the groom, and at least one person stunned more than once.
The fight broke out when a woman confronted the mother of 14-year-old boy who was letting her son drink beer. (The boy was later determined to have had a blood alcohol content of 0.16 percent.) The mother reacted to this unwanted parenting advice by very reasonably punching the concerned woman in the face.
At that point, I can only imagine that someone started shooting guns into the air, Yosemite Sam-style, to officially signal the start of the brawl. The Reading Eagle has a full account of what went down:
When they arrived, people were scattered on the grounds, some of them shirtless and bloodied, according to Northern Berks Officer Sean Showalter’s report.
Showalter was approached by a man who said he was punched in the face, breaking his glasses, by a woman who also assaulted his wife, apparently triggering the brawl.
If you’re wondering what the bride thought of all of this happening on her special day, don’t worry; she was probably too drunk to remember much as she was later treated for alcohol poisoning along with the 14-year-old boy. Her new husband, on the other hand, 31-year-old Nicholas Papoutsis, was preoccupied with challenging the cops to a fight.
“I tried reasoning with him, telling him that he didn’t really want to get arrested on his wedding night,” Showalter wrote in the affidavit. But police said Papoutsis kept advancing on the officer, so he was taken into custody by Showalter and Officer Andy Barrow from Muhlenberg.
Oh, and this also happened:
Brian R. Pelker, 46, of the 400 block of Hill Road, South Heidelberg Township, refused to get out of the way, yelled at officers and took on a fighting stance. After warning him to get out of the way. Barrow used a stun gun on him to no effect. He tried to use the stun gun again but Pelker only got more aggressive, so Barrow took him down with a baton.
Once on the ground, Pelker struggled with officers and grabbed one of them in the crotch before he was subdued.
It sounds like a beautiful affair. At the very least, the happy couple will have an interesting story to tell the grand kids someday.
(Reading Eagle; 6ABC via New York Daily News)