10 Bloody Wedding Brawls

Weddings tend to be kind of a big thing. A lot of importance is generally placed upon the ceremony involved, and quite a bit of money is often thrown into the proceedings. Why not? More than a few would state that the wedding should be the best day of the newlyweds’ lives.

Weddings aren’t always the happy occasion couples hope for, however. For one, they usually feature a lot of alcohol, and guests are happy to indulge. After celebrating for several hours, drunken people become quick to argue, and they freely throw punches.

10 Leichhardt’s Albert Palais Theatre

A wedding guest groped several women—including the groom’s mother—at a wedding in New South Wales in Australia in May 2017. After the groper pinched the bottom of the best man’s girlfriend, the partygoers realized that one man had molested numerous wedding guests. They asked him to leave, and a fight began when they tried to remove him. Around 30 people were involved in the brawl.

The fight spilled out into the street. A security guard, Brad Allsopp, saw a dozen guys chasing one man across the road. They caught the man, and five or six guys began punching and kicking the groper. One man tried to break up the fight. He was head-butted in the nose, and blood started “splattering everywhere.”^[1] He was later treated for a broken nose.

Allsopp ran to stop the fight, but a man pulled him from behind. Allsopp explained he was a security guard; however, the man punched him in the nose.

Police arrived and sorted out the fight. They arrested the best man after he was aggressive toward them.

9 Royal Palace Banquet Hall

Four or five uninvited guests arrived at a California wedding in May 2017, and they soon invited a couple dozen friends to join them. These party-crashers started to harass female guests, and they were asked to leave.^[2] They reluctantly left the banquet hall.

30 of the interlopers waited outside for the guests to leave. When the guests left the wedding, the crashers attacked them. They hit and kicked the guests, and some of them beat the guests with metal objects. 70 people became engulfed in the brawl while hundreds watched.

The police were called, and most of the fighters scattered. However, it still took 20 officers to completely stop the fight. At least ten people were injured in the melee. One man, Daljit Gill, was severely injured after he was punched and stomped repeatedly. Gill was hospitalized and placed into a comatose state as a piece of his skull was removed to relieve brain pressure. He survived with permanent health issues.

Two people were arrested.

8 Gateway Clipper

Mark Williams and his bride got married on a Pittsburgh riverboat in 2014. During the reception, Mark started making drunken advances on a 19-year-old waitress. He walked over to her and started rubbing her head, and he put his hand on her body. Mark then tried to pour alcohol down her throat, even though she told him she was pregnant.^[3]

The waitress called her boyfriend, Tyler Smith, and told him a guest had been “touchy-feely” with her, and she asked him to come pick her up.

When the boat docked, Tyler confronted Mark, and a fight began. Mark’s brother, David Williams, joined them. Police arrived, and they arrested Mark and David, who had acted aggressive toward the policemen. Another wedding guest, Brian Taylor, punched his hand through the window of a nearby car. When police attempted to arrest him, he starting screaming that he was HIV-positive.

7 Sheraton Society Hill

In 2012, Philadelphia’s Sheraton Society Hill hotel was hosting two different wedding parties. Both groups were drunk, and the partygoers got into an argument in the bar. The dispute escalated into a brawl, and many of the guests joined the fight. Soon, 75 to 100 people were battling in the hotel lobby.

The fight spilled out into the street, and someone called the police. Officers tried to subdue the crowd, but they realized that they were vastly outnumbered. They radioed for all hands on deck, and dozens of officers came to control the crowd.^[4] Policemen needed to use their batons and a Taser to gain control. They arrested three men.

During the brawl, one of the bride’s uncles had a heart attack while trying to flee the chaos with his family. He was brought to a hospital, and he died a few hours later. Ambulances also had to bring several other people to the emergency room.

6 Court Tavern

Around 30 people were celebrating at a wedding in Campbelltown, Australia, in 2017 when John Wayne Tsiakas snuck into the party. Tsiakas started to steal several of the guests’ handbags off the tables. He was spotted by one of the guests, Glenn Williams. Williams attempted to stop Tsiakas, and a fight broke out between the two men. Tsiakas grabbed Williams’s right hand, clamped his teeth down on Williams’s middle finger, and bit the tip off.^[5] He managed to sever the finger to the first knuckle.

Police were called, and they arrested the gate-crasher. While they were at the party, they had to break up another brawl outside the venue. Officers had to use pepper spray on two men, who were later treated by paramedics. One of the men had to be taken to the hospital after he lost consciousness. Officers also arrested Williams’s daughter, who was charged with assaulting the police.

Williams was brought to the hospital. His fingertip could not be reattached.

5 Rawa

In 2005, more than 100 people gathered at a resort on Rawa, a Malaysian island, to celebrate the wedding of two Brazilians. As they were enjoying the wedding feast, a group of four men—led by a member of the royal Johor family—arrived uninvited to the party.

At first, the partygoers welcomed the intruders. However, one of the party-crashers began harassing a female guest after she would not dance with him. Other guests intervened, and a fistfight broke out. The Johor royal then ordered the foreigners to leave the island resort.^[6] The guests refused to leave. Resort staff managed to calm everyone down, and the troublemakers left.

The wedding-crashers soon returned with sticks, stones, and golf clubs, and they attacked the tourists. Several of the wedding guests were injured, and they had to be taken to the hospital.

Police arrived, and they arrested the four wedding-crashers.

4 Orchard Park Country Club

A wedding guest was groped at a New York wedding by a member of the wedding party in 2014. Another guest punched the groper, and someone called the police. They escorted the groper out of the country club.

Less than an hour later, another fight broke out. Guests tried to intervene, and they were sucked into the brawl. Family members started yelling about their hatred for each other. A shocked guest later said, “Things were said that can never be taken back.”^[7]

The confrontation turned physical, and people began fighting one another. One guest described it: “There was blood everywhere. There was holes punched in the walls. Words couldn’t describe it. Just when you thought it was over, another fight started.”

Multiple people called the police. When officers arrived, there were at least 100 people fighting inside and outside the banquet hall. It took more than 15 minutes for the officers to calm everyone down. One man needed stitches for a head injury, and a few others were treated on the scene.

3 Mirama Dining Lounge

The Mirama Dining Lounge in Edmonton, Canada, was hosting two separate weddings on different floors in 2004. Each wedding contained several gang members. Unfortunately, the two gangs were rivals.^[8] Two of the wedding guests got into an argument, and their friends joined the dispute. A fight broke out, and people pulled out their knives and started to attack each other.

Seven people were stabbed, including one of the grooms, who was stabbed in the throat. One man, Tap Cong Tran, was stabbed to death. Another man received serious head injuries, and he died two weeks later. All of the victims were gang members from the same wedding.

Hundreds of guests flew into a panicked frenzy. They ducked for cover, hid in separate rooms, and ran for the exits. Someone fired their gun from the parking lot, and bullets sprayed the building.

Police were unable to find the stabbers. They had no suspects, and they did not find any weapons.

2 Holiday Inn

In 2002, near Reading, Berkshire, England, wedding-crasher Danny Stevens became enraged when a teenage partygoer flirted with his wife. He accused the teen of grabbing his wife’s butt, which the boy denied. Stevens chased the boy with a bottle, and the teen fled into the parking lot. A wedding guest, John Rooney, attempted to help the boy. Stevens attacked Rooney and left an 18-centimeter (7 in) cut across his face. The teen then tried to help Rooney, and Stevens cut the boy’s arm, face, and chest.

The teen fled into the reception hall. Another guest tried to help the boy, and Stevens stabbed him in the abdomen. Danny’s brother-in law, John Collins, jumped up to help him attack the wedding guests. They slashed anyone who got into their way.^[9] They managed to stab two more guests before the crowd started to overwhelm them.

Both men ran outside. Stevens’s wife drove up in a car, and Stevens jumped inside. He grabbed a gun and fired it into the crowd while Collins fled on foot.

Emergency services arrived, and they brought six stabbing victims to the hospital. One needed emergency surgery, but none of their injuries were fatal.

Police managed to track down Stevens and Collins. They were arrested and found guilty. Collins was jailed for four years. Stevens, who was part of a gang and had a history of violence, was sentenced to life in prison.

1 Blue Falls Grove Wedding

In 2015, near Reading, Pennsylvania, a wedding guest noticed that a 14-year-old boy was drunk, and she confronted the boy’s mother, Mandi L. Groh. Groh punched the woman in the face. The injured woman’s husband tried to help his wife, and Groh punched him in the face and broke his glasses.

A fight broke out between a dozen wedding guests. Some people tried to calm the brawlers down. However, “alcohol had taken over.”^[10] The owner of the wedding venue called the police.

When police arrived, it was mayhem: “People were scattered on the grounds, some of them shirtless and bloodied.” The bride was lying on the ground—she was later treated for alcohol poisoning and dehydration.

The groom challenged the officers to a duel. Police tried to reason with him, but he just wanted to fight, so they arrested him.

Groh grabbed her drunken son and tried to flee. Police caught her. She was arrested, and her son was taken to the hospital, where he was treated for alcohol poisoning.

Police officers heard a fight inside the banquet hall, and they went to investigate. A drunken man, Brian R. Pelker, stood in front of the door and refused to let them in. A policeman used a stun gun on Pelker; it did not stop him. The officer managed to take Pelker down with a baton, but Pelker grabbed the policeman’s groin before he was subdued.

The drunken wedding guests began threatening the police, who called for backup. It took 25 officers, two K-9 units, and a prisoner transport vehicle to control the crowd. Four officers were hospitalized from injuries received during the fight.

The groom and six wedding guests were arrested.