WEAR TV 3 reports:
Beach Brawl
PENSACOLA, BEACH – An evening at the beach turned into chaos this past weekend.
Eighteen people were arrested, after several disturbances on Pensacola Beach.
Channel Three’s James Jackson joins us with more.
Deputies arrested several people right here, after a fight broke out on the beach.
A man who was in the area caught the whole incident on tape.
Shortly after the Blue Angel Show was canceled… Tempers on the beach, behind the boardwalk also took off… As a fight broke out, involving several people.
Russell Tucker, who was on vacation from Birmingham, saw some of the violence.
Russell Tucker/Witness
“Two women got into a fight. Two girls got into an argument and a lot of people went to break up the fight between the two girls and it never happened.”
The brawl lasted nearly three minutes.
Two men started fighting and several people tried to break it up.
That’s when one man throws another to the ground.
It becomes a free for all.
Restaurant employees step in to break it up as the brawl continues down the beach.
Within minutes… Sheriff’s deputies move in.
Russell Tucker/Witness
“You’ve got a lot of people drinking and when you can walk across that boulevard over there with an open container, you’re going to have that kind of bull crap.”
Johnny Sullivan, an assistant general manager at Flounder’s, says violence on the beach hurts his restaurant’s bottom dollar.
Johnny Sullivan/Flounder’s Restaurant
“We really do a lot to deter it because it does. It does affect business. Nobody wants to go to an establishment or pace where something like that happens because people are bringing their families out and they want a safe fun place to go.”
Deputies arrested six people that afternoon.
Russell Tucker says he plans on returning to Pensacola Beach in December… And this will not stop him.
Deputies say the remainder of the arrests were for everything from home invasion.. to burglary and battery.
Last Updated: Wednesday, July 16 2008, 08:33 PM