WESTFIELD – A birthday party on Elizabeth Avenue got out of hand Saturday evening and, when the dust settled, the guest of honor was in custody, one relative was being treated at Baystate Medical Center and another was facing criminal charges.
At least five persons called police, starting at 9:37 p.m., to report the disturbance and one caller said a male party was unconscious and bleeding. Both police and fire department resources were dispatched.
Officer David Racicot, the first of seven city officers to arrive, reports he arrived to find several persons in the roadway where a male party was lying with bleeding facial injuries and two men were involved in a pushing match while several others watched.
Racicot reports that he separated the two men but, while tending to the injured man, lost track of one of the struggling men.
Officer Richard Mazza, who arrived minute after Racicot, requested that a second ambulance be dispatched and the injured man, who regained consciousness, was seen to have significant lacerations on his face. He was transported to Baystate Medical Center where he was subsequently treated and released.
Racicot reports the younger of the men he had separated became confrontational and refused to calm down.
When officer attempted to take control of him, the man struggled until a Taser was deployed and applied.
Racicot found that the gathering was a 21st birthday party for the man in custody and all participants had been drinking alcohol.
He found that the man the person in custody had been pushing was his elder brother, who was described as a wrestler and a very large man, and who reportedly had been involved in an argument with a brother-in-law at the party.
The argument devolved to a physical altercation in which the bigger man allegedly punched his brother-in-law in the face repeatedly before picking him up bodily and throwing him face-first to the pavement.
Racicot reports no pool of blood was found at the place when the victim reportedly hit the ground.
Although the officers, augmented by two state troopers, were allowed to search the residence the aggressive brother was not found.
Criminal complaints for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery with serious bodily injury were filed against the missing man.
The birthday boy was found to be too intoxicated to comprehend that he had been assaulting police officers when they originally took control of him and he was held in protective custody.
A Walker Avenue resident who called at about the same time said that he saw three men arguing in his front yard prior to police arrival and said that one of the men broke his mailbox off its post before all three men walked away toward Paper Mill Road.
Two other mailboxes nearby were later found to have also been broken.
