5 people charged in 'vicious' brawl in Cincinnati that sparked safety debate in the city
A video of the fight early Saturday shows a crowd milling about before several people start throwing punches. One man falls to the ground and was repeatedly punched and kicked by a bystanders. Another woman is punched in the face and falls to the ground, lying motionless before another woman helps her. She can be seeing bleeding from the mouth.
'I am outraged by the vicious fight that occurred downtown,' Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval said in a statement. 'It is horrifying to watch, and this is unacceptable and disgusting behavior is intolerable in any part of our community.'
Three days after the brawl, the city has released little information about it other than to say it was not related to a Cincinnati Reds game, a basketball tournament or a jazz festival that attracted over 150,000 people to the city. It said five people have been charged in the brawl but only two had been arrested as of Tuesday.
Police Chief Teresa Theetge said more people would be charged, warning that anyone who 'put their hands on another individual during this incident in an attempt to cause harm will face consequences.' She also suggested some bar owners may be culpable for over-serving participants in the confrontation, which occurred about 3 a.m. Saturday.
Theetge appeared on the defensive during the news conference, complaining the brawl was getting all the attention and 'undoing all the good stuff that happened this weekend.' She also complained that bystanders took many videos but that only one person called 911. Police responded to the scene after the fight was over, about six minutes after the call.
'For us to get one phone call about this incident is unacceptable in this city,' she said.
The video of the brawl quickly turned political. Vice President JD Vance 's half brother Cory Bowman, who is running to be Cincinnati's mayor, flagged the fight on social media on Saturday and blamed city leadership for creating an unsafe environment.
'For many, these images sparked shock and disbelief,' he said in a statement. 'For residents within our city limits, they serve as a stark reminder of the ongoing crime and lawlessness we've had to endure this summer.'
Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights at U.S. Justice Department, posted on X above an image of the video that 'EVERY American ���� is entitled to the equal protection of our laws. Federal law enforcement is on it and we will ensure that justice is done.'
The videos also became a flashpoint among conservatives online, despite a lack of available details about the incident. Political influencers pointed to it as an example of apparent Black-on-white violence and criticized media coverage of the fight.
'Why zero stories?' billionaire X owner Elon Musk wrote on his social platform on Sunday. Grok, Musk's AI chatbot, fanned the flames, claiming in an X post the same day that the 'media blackout' of the story was 'telling.'
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Swenson reported from New York.
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A man and a woman have been arrested in connection with the early July 26 brawl in downtown Cincinnati that drew national attention and raised concerns about safety in the city's urban core. Multiple videos of the 3 a.m. fight Downtown circulated on social media over the weekend, showing a fight breaking out in a crowd. People threw punches, kicked and jeered as a man on the ground tried to fend off the blows and a woman tumbled to the concrete, bloody and disoriented. Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge said only one person in the crowd of '100 or so' called 911. At a community meeting on the night of July 29, the chief, who has lashed out at bystanders of the fight, bars for overserving and the media, criticized the city's portrayal on national news and how the fight has been used as political ammo. Here's what we know about the arrests and the fight: Who has been arrested in connection with the Cincinnati brawl Montianez Merriweather, 34, and Dekyra Vernon, 24, have been arrested on felonious assault and aggravated riot charges, according to Cincinnati police. Theetge said on July 29 that a third person was in the process of being arrested. Police have identified two other suspects as well. Merriweather was indicted on four felony charges on July 10 after investigators said he was found to be in possession of a stolen firearm. Court records show he is charged with carrying concealed weapons, receiving stolen property, improper handling of firearms in a vehicle and weapons under disability. The last charge is due to a prior felony conviction in 2009 for aggravated robbery, the documents state. In the weapons case, Merriweather was released after posting 10% of a $4,000 bond. "He never should have been out," said Ken Kober, Cincinnati police union president. The Enquirer has reached out to the attorney who represented Merriweather in the previous case for comment. Hamilton County court records show Vernon has no prior criminal convictions in the county. The suspects are expected to appear in court on the morning of July 30. What happened in the Cincinnati brawl Police have not said what led to the fight at Fourth and Elm streets on a busy weekend in downtown Cincinnati. Some of the videos posted on social media showed that the fight began as two men circled each other and a crowd gathered. A few people step between them, in an apparent attempt to calm them down. One man appears to slap the other. At that point, more people join in, attacking the man who delivered the slap and kicking and punching him after he falls to the ground. Another video shows a woman moments before she's knocked to the pavement, approaching the men involved in the fight. Moments later, a woman in the crowd runs up to her and throws a punch. 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"I will not tolerate lawlessness on the streets of Cincinnati," Theetge said during the July 29 meeting at the Cincinnati Public Library. "I owe it to you as people who live and work here to get the lawlessness under control." One resident questioned the department's response to the fight during the early hours of Saturday morning, asking Theetge how many 911 calls for noise complaints or other disorder police received prior to the fight breaking out. A woman chimed in that there was at least one, indicating she had called that night. "Downtown was hopping. It was loud. It was crowded. It was noisy," Theetge said, admitting she did not have the exact number of calls for noise complaints or disorder that night. The chief said there was only one other medical run for the fire department that evening she knew of. Is there an uptick in crime in Cincinnati? The latest crime data provided by the city shows shootings are down when compared with data from this time last year, but property crimes, particularly in Over-the-Rhine and Downtown, are up: In Downtown and Over-the-Rhine, there have been nearly double the number of burglaries, breaking-and-entering incidents and thefts from cars so far this year. Citywide, there have been 34 reported homicides, compared to 30 at this time last year. More than a third of those killings have happened in the past month. In Over-the-Rhine, there have been five homicides this year, three of which have been in the past month. Reported shootings remain down across the city. Cincinnati police report 110 people have been shot so far this year, compared with 142 at this point in 2024. How the Cincinnati fight videos were shared on social media Signal 99, a Facebook page which calls itself "a Spicy meme page for Cops, Firefighters, Medics and Dispatchers," shared the video the morning of July 26. It went on to gain traction on multiple platforms, including on Mayoral candidate and JD Vance's half-brother Cory Bowman's own Facebook page, and additional angles of the incident have also been shared. Elon Musk, GOP Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, also weighed in. Politics, race and crime: Why a fight in Cincinnati went viral on social media The Enquirer will update this developing news report This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati fight: Arrests made after viral videos show crowd attack
