Several people were arrested, one person was seriously injured, and nearly 40 boating citations were issued after a massive fight broke out at an annual lake party in Florida on Saturday, USA Today reported.
Hundreds of people, many on boats, gathered at the event called Mayhem at Lake George. What started out as a day of fun nearly ended in tragedy after at least one person sustained a serious injury and had to be taken to a hospital.
"People are just out there to have a good time, but like anything else, when you have a huge concentration of people like this and you have alcohol involved, you do have some incidents," Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood told WESH 2.
He noted that it took "a while" to get the injured man the medical attention because authorities needed to get through the crowd to reach him.
"It took a while to get him to a landing zone where air one had to improvise to land which was a feat in itself," Chitwood said. "They landed on basically a postage stamp."
Video footage posted shows multiple men grabbing and punching each other in the water around a DJ deck anchored in the water. One attendee can be seen shoving another off the DJ deck.
First responders spent 12 hours on site, which incurred a significant cost to the agency, Chitwood said.
"As a community, you have to put all these resources out there because something horrible could go wrong," he stated.
Officers issued 38 boating citations and 108 warnings. Five people were arrested: two for disorderly conduct and three for boating under the influence, USA Today reported.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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