One Dead, Three Arrested After Hotel Wedding Brawl in Philadelphia - East Idaho News
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One Dead, Three Arrested After Hotel Wedding Brawl in Philadelphia

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GETTY W 102511 ArrestHandcuffed?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1349696680275Photodisc/Digital Vision/Thinkstock(PHILADELPHIA) — Philadelphia police are investigating a violent brawl inside a hotel between the guests of two different wedding parties that left one man dead from an apparent heart attack, and three others arrested.

Dozens of police officers responded to the violent clash in the lobby of the Sheraton Society Hill in Philadelphia Sunday around 2 a.m. At one point, the fight got so chaotic that police used batons on those who resisted their efforts to break up the fight.  One person had to be subdued with a Taser.  Police said the use of such force was justified.

A 57-year-old man was found apparently undergoing a heart attack on the street outside the hotel and later died at a nearby hospital.  His name has not been released by police, but he was reportedly the uncle of one of the brides, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Police arrested three people following the brawl, including the man who was Tasered.  Police said he would be charged with assault on a police officer, according to ABC News affiliate WPVI-TV.

The entire melee was captured on video and posted on YouTube by hotel guest Max Schultz, who was awakened by the ruckus.

“There were tons of people, probably 75 to 100 people,” he said.

Police said that the fight began as a confrontation between relatives and friends attending the wedding held at the hotel earlier Saturday night.  When people attending a second wedding held elsewhere arrived at the hotel bar, police said the original confrontation escalated.

Police told WPVI that alcohol fueled the fight as rising tempers took over.

In the video, an officer can be seen trying to hold back one of the brides while a man in a tuxedo was thrown to the floor.

Schultz, who was in town celebrating his 15th birthday with his family, can be overhead in the video asking, “Did they just deck the bride?”

“They started shoving each other and at that point I had started fumbling with my camera,” said Schultz.

Schultz’s video is now evidence, and police continue to review it to determine if additional people will face charges for their actions at this wedding reception that unexpectedly became a real bash.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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