() Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge announced that five people face charges stemming from a violent brawl in the city’s downtown, vowing that more is coming.
Several angles of the fight went viral, with video showing a group surrounding and beating a man, and another angle showing a woman who appears to be knocked unconscious hitting her head on the concrete.
People have blamed police for not being on site, but Theetge responded by saying only one person called 911.
Officers were on the scene in six minutes, but by then the brawl was over.
A number of suspects have been identified, with county prosecutor Connie Pillich saying she will prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.
But none of the five people currently charged have been arrested yet, because police can’t find them. Authorities are asking the suspects to turn themselves in.
Theetge defended the police response, saying that police got a call at 3:06 a.m. and were on scene within six minutes. She also lashed out at the media in a press briefing.
“Another topic I want to cover real quick is social media and journalism and the role it plays in the incident,” she said. “And yes guys, that’s you. That is you. The social media post that we’ve seen does not depict the entire incident. That is one version of what occurred.”
Many have slammed her and the city’s response. Vivek Ramaswamy is running for governor of Ohio, and he says it’s unconscionable that there were no police present in that area of Cincinnati on a Friday night.
He also questioned why there wasn’t an ambulance to take the woman who was knocked unconscious to the hospital.
Corey Bowman, half-brother to Vice President JD Vance, is running for mayor and blames the fight on mismanagement.
“We have to look at the root issue of this and that’s mismanagement. We have this saying, that’s trickle-down incompetence,” Bowman said. “The incompetence is coming from the top down and we have to fix it.”
One of the victims of the brawl, the woman who was knocked unconscious, is a single mother who was out celebrating a friend’s birthday party that night. Authorities say she is doing okay.
