Mother's Day Brawl Breaks Out At Revere Beach In Massachusetts

A massive brawl broke out at Revere Beach, Massachusetts, on Sunday that involved between 100 and 200 people and had police from across the region rushing to the scene.

The Mother's Day melee at the popular beach just north of Boston apparently started when two women began fighting, Mayor Dan Rizzo told NECN. He said their boyfriends joined the fight, which then snowballed into the brawl.

The station reports that 12 people were arrested.

WHDH reports that the brawl began over a stolen handbag. Police made an arrest over the incident, but it drew a crowd which then turned violent. One witness told the station that a girl involved in the fight punched a police officer in the face.

"It just kept building and building and more people getting upset about their friends being taken into custody," another witness, Tyler Wade, told WHDH.

The fight escalated from there.

"Everybody started screaming people were throwing full cans of coke in the air trying to hit cop cars," said another witness, according to a Twitter post from WZB reporter Nicole Jacobs.

There were no reports of injuries.

Police came to help from “pretty much all of Eastern Massachusetts and some of Central Massachusetts,” State Police Lieutenant Dan Richard told the Boston Globe.

Units from Lynn, Chelsea, Boston, Everett, Winthrop, the Massachusetts State Police, Transit Police and Environmental Police all came to the scene to assist, according to WCVB in Boston.

The sheer number of people involved in the violence made it difficult for police to get to the beach.

“It’s very busy down there because of the weather, and then one thing happens, and no one wants to leave,” Revere Police Sgt. Charlie Ovino told Boston.com. “It was extremely bad. We sent our prisoner wagon and it couldn’t even make it through.”