Cops identify alleged wedding brawler
The one party goer who was arrested and held overnight by police after an all-out brawl at a Society Hill wedding has been identified as Matthew Sofka, 26, of Westfield, N.J.
Cops identify alleged wedding brawler
The one party goer who was arrested and held overnight by police after an all-out brawl at a Society Hill wedding this weekend has been identified as Matthew Sofka, 26, of Westfield, N.J.
On his Facebook page, Sofka says that he likes Bud Light and "The Hangover II." Sofka spent much of his Sunday recovering from his own hangover in a prison cell, according to police.
Sofka was charged with assault on police, inciting a riot and related offenses for his part in a massive melee involving two wedding parties and police early Sunday morning at the Society Hill Sheraton.
Two other men, both in their late 20s, were give summary citations for disorderly conduct. Their names have not been released.
A man reported to be the uncle of the bride died of a heart attack following the fight. It's unclear if he was involved in any of the altercations.
Hotel guests estimated that between 50 and 100 cops showed up to control 50 to 100 party goers from two separate weddings who were fighting each other and amongst themselves for unknown reasons. Police and hotel guests said the fights appeared to be fueled by alcohol.
Max Schultz, 15, of Camp Hill, captured part of the melee on a video he posted to YouTube which, as of this morning, had more than 532,000 views.
In the video, a police officer can be seen hitting Sofka three times with his baton. Sofka was then Tasered off camera, according to police.
There's that solemn sanctity of marraige we keep hearing about.— cemego- I KNEW it had to be people from Jersey. — EastChestnut
Comment removed.- That sure is some police brutality going on there in the video. Hopefully Ramsey won't sweep that under the rug and hold the officer accountable.— Taxpaying Voter
- I guess in your mind, the cops should have told them to "please stop fighting, pretty please with sugar on top." Normal people should know to stop acting like idiots when the cops arrive.
- Actually normal people should know not to act like that to begin with. Quasi-normal people should know to stop when the police arrive. Apparently these people completely abnormal.
- Aha. Not philly trash, but Jersey trash coming into the city and causing trouble. I figured they were either from the suburbs or somewhere else outside of the city.— CommonSense in Philly
- White trash suburban conservatives who don't know how to act when they visit civilization. A fence should be built around S. Jersey so we in the city wouldn't have to waste our tax dollars on these imbeciles. — John Fante
- Uh, the dude is from North Jersey. A cursory search on FB shows this immed. And not to defend SJ too much, but they y are also responsible for paying into the city's BS (and, eons ago, supposedly "temporary") wage tax and help support what is becoming a crumbling town and if they work in the city. Not like they WANT to pay this tax, but it does seem obvious that most tax dollars regardless of where they are coming from are misspent. Jus' sayini... — SoupKan
- Hey "Soupkan," why so sad. No one told these people to bring their white trash wedding to a civilized city. And hey, no body is forcing NJ residents to work in the city to earn their livelihood. I'm sure these bastions of inbreeding could find work anywhere among the pin barrens, cul-de-sacs and bottlnecks that make up New Jersey. That goes the same for the suburbanites who choose to work in the work in the city and moan about paying taxes. No one is forcing them. You sound like white trash conservative suburbanites like yourself have no ability to make their own decisions. Just sayin' — John Fante
- I love it! let's build a fence so all of the white trash philly people can't come to the jersey shore and start trouble..
good idea!— kevgret - you want to see trash, take a stroll around tacony, south philly or roxborough
— hannibal barca - so glad we have such a constructive discourse on the value of people who live east of the delaware river and those that live west of it...here i thought there were varying calibers of people in all places. now i know that philadelphians and those from south jersey are genetically predisposed to being 'trash'. so glad the commenters on the philly.com boards could clarify this for all of us.
- Right CommonSense, because nobody who lives in the city limits acts like that, or much worse? The 3 thugs from Fishtown who beat the guy to death at the Phillies game, over a spilled bear? The father and son fireman from the Northeast who beat a pedestrian to death because he took too long to walk across the street? The South Street mardi gras melee from 10 years ago, none of those arrested were city residents? I'm not saying Philly is all trash, but don't be absurd, losers like this can come from anywhere. — sadavies
