Felony charges added for man in wedding brawl
A New Jersey man cited for disorderly conduct for his role in the massive melee that erupted when two wedding parties began brawling Oct. 7 in the Society Hill Sheraton is now charged with with several felonies, after investigators determined he assaulted a police officer, police said Tuesday.
Felony charges added for man in wedding brawl
A New Jersey man originally cited for disorderly conduct for his role in the massive melee that erupted when two wedding parties began brawling Oct. 7 in the Society Hill Sheraton is now charged with several felonies, after investigators determined he assaulted a police officer, police said Tuesday.
Brian Lanza, 29, of Westfield, N.J., is charged with assault on police, aggravated assault, resisting arrest, criminal conspiracy and related offenses in the incident that was caught on tape and went viral. Lanza turned himself in to Central Detectives Monday, police said. The District Attorney's Office will withdraw the disorderly conduct charge, police said.
Police already have charged Matthew Sofka, 26, also of Westfield, with assault on police, inciting a riot and related offenses. Another man in his late 20s, whose name wasn't released, was given a summary citation for disorderly conduct.
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. Several versions of the video has since been posted there, garnering more than a million views. In the video, a police officer can be seen hitting Sofka three times with his baton. Sofka was then Tasered off camera, police said.
Punk— pritter- Notice that all of the surnames end with a vowel?
— Nanette_Jon_Vestibule - Sock Puppet.— 4friedchickensandacoke
- What about those 6 African-American women who assaulted that white woman in Chester? Funny how that story died out as soon as the race of the disabled victim was reported.— knicks84
- Who cares about the race, people are committing crime left and right, black, white, Hispanic or Asian. No one want to see crime or anyone from any race hurt in any way. No matter what it’s tragic. But it’s people like you that makes this world so horrible and race driven. All race commit crimes and all races do things that are not right. Open your eyes and see what’s really going on and stop being so limited in your thinking. Or try and grow up, which I’m sure might be hard for you. — Centanni28
- @ knicks84: You're a fool. There was a follow-up article about that crime on this site just yesterday. Open your eyes and stop seeing only what you want to see. — wb2nd
- @Centanni28 - Just wondering why this story has been in the papers for going on 2 weeks and the other story died out. Did you know in the Chester assault that the attackers yelled they waanted to get "a white woman" prior to them pummeling that disable woman on her front steps and into her home? I bet you did not because the Inquirer decided not to report that part. Strange, isn't it???
— knicks84 - Looks like Paul Ryan.....loser— audrina
- A white trash weddin, the North Jersey hillbillies and white trash causing problems in the City, it's bad enough the City has to deal with the white trash and hillbillies from South Jersey.— onepercenter
- @wb2nd - Why are you calling me a fool? Where are the hate-crime charges for 6 black women viciously beating a white woman? You telling me to open my eyes is beyond hilarious. You probably believe everything the Inquirer decides to "report".
— knicks84 - @wb2nd - Why are you calling me a fool? Where are the hate-crime charges for 6 black women viciously beating a white woman? You telling me to open my eyes is beyond hilarious. You probably believe everything the Inquirer decides to "report". (HTML deleted)— knicks84
- This fight was hilarious, glad we were able to view it— cmoney
- They only got two people charged among the wedding parties and they do not have evidence to charge others. So it will be a wash when it comes to court.— Aces high
- Tuxedo rental companies generally keep security deposits if the lessees bleed on them too much.— dglass1
- NO PROOF, Let em fight it out in court and let's not judge on the comments board. Somethings not right and I say it's the cops who are blowing it... ONCE AGAIN....— ArseoleChris
