A single beach towel was the catalyst in a 40-person water park brawl that almost killed a man on Sunday afternoon.
The Sacramento, Calif., park Raging Waters was shut down around 3:30 p.m. local time when two women had a disagreement over who stole whose towel by the Lazy River picnic area, Everest Robillard, the Cal Expo police chief, told KCRA 3.
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“It started over a beach towel and then escalated into verbal insults and profanity, one family getting angry because of profanities being said in front of children,” Robillard told the Sacramento Bee. “The next thing we know of, it became physical.”
The fight occurred between two separate families, each with 15 to 20 members, for a whopping total of 40 people engaged in the melee.
According to Robillard, 35-year-old Christopher Neves jumped in to help, only to be attacked by three other people who joined the alcohol-fueled brawl after him.
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When officials arrived, Neves was found without a pulse or heartbeat.
Both eventually returned after CPR was administered and he was taken on a gurney to UC David Medical Center, where he remains in intensive care.
One witness, Fox News reports, remembered seeing someone break a chair over someone else’s head.
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“The safety of all Raging Waters Sacramento guests is our top priority,” Rick Iafrate, general manager of the water park, said after he closed the park early.
While no arrests were made, Robillard said, brawl participants were photographed and released.
It seems that family fun parks have been cursed with violence this year.
Back in July, several members of one family fought in front of Goofy’s Playhouse — and dozens of young children — at Disneyland in a fight captured on video.
Footage recorded by a bystander shows the fight breaking out between a man in a red shirt and a woman pushing a stroller. The melee quickly escalates, drawing in two other men and three women, including an older woman on a motorized scooter.
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The incident happened in Mickey’s Toontown at the iconic theme park in Anaheim, Calif. Children can be heard crying at some points during the fracas. The video shows the very beginning of the fight, as the man in the red shirt and the woman pushing the stroller yell at one another.
The man in red towers over her, shouting at her. She appears to spit in his face, prompting him to lash out. Another man standing beside the woman jumps in immediately, and soon the two men are squaring off with their fists up, ready to fight.
More than three minutes after the fight started, several security personnel show up to put an end to the altercation. Three adults face multiple charges as a result.
—With files from Josh K. Elliott