A wedding in Ohio descended into chaos on Friday evening when four brothers from a rival family allegedly crashed the reception and attacked guests, forcing terrified revellers to flee the venue. The incident took place at around 8.50pm inside the La Centre Banquet Facility in Westlake, US.
According to video obtained by Fox8 Cleveland and KHOU, one alleged victim told police: “We were dancing and four brothers jumped on us.” The situation escalated when one of the men, identified as Raed Mahmoud Sulaiman, armed himself with a large knife found on a place setting and began wielding it as music blared in the hall.
Guests flee as violence erupts
Westlake Police Captain Jerry Vogel said officers were alerted to the violence before arriving. “We knew violence already happened from independent witnesses who called us, who said people were bloody, so we know there’s already violence going on,” he told the outlet. In response, one attendee threw a chair at the armed suspect, and many panicked guests rushed out into the car park, where arriving police were met by at least 40 frantic people.
The hostility was traced to a feud between two families. “People who don’t normally get together and have hostilities against each other got together for whatever reason,” Vogel said. “In this case, it was somebody’s wedding. I don’t know all the relationships that were involved but when they got together, everything came back to the surface.”
Arrests and charges
Sulaiman, 46, was arrested and charged with assault, inducing panic and tampering with evidence. “He took it one step further and brandished an actual butter knife from a place setting evidently and was threatening people with the butter knife,” Vogel added. Two other men, described by officials as “bad apples,” were also charged for their roles in the brawl.
