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Police Investigating West Side Fight

SCRANTON — Police took six people into custody Monday afternoon, six out of a suspected 20 people who were fighting with baseball bats in a west Scranton ...

SCRANTON -- Police took six people into custody Monday afternoon, six out of a suspected 20 people who were fighting with baseball bats in a west Scranton neighborhood.

That fight started on Lincoln Avenue. When police showed up, that crowd of about 20 people scattered and officers caught up with some of them in a baseball field on Oxford Street.

Police believe the fight between two groups was retaliation for another fight over the weekend.

It was the sheer number of Scranton police cars, about 10 in all, that startled neighbors on Oxford Street and South 9th Avenue the most. Before officers arrived they didn't know what was going on out on the street.

Officers stopped the group believed to be part of a larger group that fled from a fight a few blocks away.

"The one girl was being belligerent over here, then four more pulled up and me and my friend were out here watching it all," explained Brandon Walsh of Scranton.

Neighbors watched as police put six people in handcuffs and separated them into different police cars.

They were taken to police headquarters to be interviewed. Initially, some suspects told officers the fight stemmed from another on Saturday night.

"It's getting worse and worse in Scranton, real bad."

Police believe the fight started on Lincoln Avenue.  One group, armed with baseball bats, tried to get into a home.

A maintenance worker at All Saints Academy across the street says he noticed three people with baseball bats walk past the school. And then police arrived, and when he walked outside everyone had scattered.

Police turned up only one baseball bat and not much information. Only one victim was willing to cooperate with officers.

"Right now we're only surmising from what we've heard that there may have been an incident Saturday night involving two groups of individuals and we believe the same two groups were involved this afternoon," said Scranton Police Capt. Glenn Thomas.

Scranton police say they filed disorderly conduct charges against the six people they took into custody Tuesday along with two other people.

As far as officers know, no one was seriously injured but they say they may file assault charges against some of the people involved.

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