Two juveniles and four adults were arrested Wednesday in connection with a videotaped fight that broke out Sunday in a Bradley County neighborhood off U.S. Highway 64 that left one man unconscious as he was repeatedly punched and kicked in the head.
One of the two juveniles and an adult face a charge of attempted second-degree murder, authorities said.
The incident happened Sunday evening on Puente Drive about seven miles east of Cleveland, Tennessee, and "was initially reported by the victim," sheriff's office spokesperson Taylor Woodruff said Wednesday. The person identified as the victim is an adult male who was left unconscious at the end of the fight, he said.
The four adults, Alexus Silva, Jared Grugor, Delilah Leon and Timothy Morgan, were each charged with riot, a class A misdemeanor, Woodruff said in a statement. Morgan was the adult charged along with the unnamed juvenile with attempted second-degree murder, a class B felony, according to Woodruff.
Both juveniles were taken into custody at the Bradley County Juvenile Detention Center at 11 a.m. Wednesday and warrants were served on each of the adult suspects who turned themselves in to authorities voluntarily around 5:15 p.m., Woodruff said. No booking photos were immediately available of the adults charged.
Woodruff said a video of the fight surfaced later on Facebook after the investigation began.
Investigators "were able to identify everyone in the video and they were conducting interviews yesterday," Woodruff said Wednesday.
The video that had been posted on Facebook showed the disturbing scene unfold on Puente Drive.
The person who recorded and posted the video on his Facebook page, Derek Walker, said Wednesday that days ago he heard about a possible fight through an online group and decided to go to Puente Drive to see and record the fight for his page, "DCW's Cleveland Productions."
"I thought it was going to be a one-on-one fight before I went, but when I got there five people got out of the car, which is not on the video, and then I started videoing and things started escalating from there," Walker said. Weapons appeared and the fight "ended up being five against two."
Walker, who has taken some heat online for not stepping in to intervene, said he didn't get involved because he didn't want any "legal trouble" and that he also didn't want to get hurt trying to stop it.
Walker was focused on his phone and recording the action and not directly on the fight, he said, so he wasn't aware of how severe it was.
"It didn't really dawn on me what I'd actually seen until I got home and we watched the video," Walker said.
"I knew he was knocked out but when we went back and watched the video he looked dead," Walker said. "We thought they killed the guy."
In the beginning of the video six or seven people are in the street arguing, with two or three of them quickly exchanging blows before arguing some more. As the argument continues and tension escalates, a man in a red shirt seems to be talking to someone behind a female who shoves him back. The man in the red shirt - identified by Woodruff as the victim who reported the incident to police - continues to talk to the others as the female in front of him keeps pushing him back. Suddenly punches fly between two other people in the group and a brawl erupts.
The fight continues with everyone upright until the man in the red shirt is taken to the ground and others descend on him, including one person who wields a pipe or pole to beat him as he struggled, outnumbered, on the pavement. Several others begin to rain dozens of punches and kicks on him, and one person who stomps and kicks the red-shirted man in the head appears to render him unconscious.
Despite his helplessness, he is repeatedly kicked and punched until finally the person who knocked him out delivers a last vicious kick to his head and walks away. Even then, another person in a green shirt kicks him at least seven more times as he lies unconscious on the ground.
Woodruff said Wednesday that the man in the red shirt was treated for his injuries at a local hospital and later released.
Results of the investigation will be turned over to the 10th Judicial District Attorney's Office, officials said.
District Attorney General Stephen Crump said Wednesday that his office was offering assistance in the investigation as officials await case evidence.
"As soon as that's completed, we'll be moving forward to deal with this," Crump said.
Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569. Follow him on Twitter @BenBenton or at www.facebook.com/benbenton1.