Enfield officials, eyewitnesses recount massive police response to Pearl St. brawl

ENFIELD, CT (WGGB/WSHM) - Authorities in Connecticut are investigating a fight that broke out Tuesday afternoon involving two high school students near a church on Pearl Street in Enfield.

Authorities called it a “large-scale disturbance” and believe the fight started Monday night between two high school girls and continued into Tuesday.

“Certainly a lot of bickering, and when it’s a group that big, it certainly sounds like more than just an argument,” said Lucas Rodrigues, who lives in the area.

One girl involved in the brawl got a black eye and another was bitten, according to Enfield Police Chief Alaric Fox.

Officers were able to put an end to the fight, which Enfield Mayor Bob Cressoti told Western Mass News may have involved a gun, though police did not locate one at the time of the incident. Authorities believe that the altercation started Monday night and tensions were exacerbated by social media.

“With social media today, things can escalate very quickly, and I think this is a situation where it did happen,” Mayor Cressoti said.

Western Mass News also spoke with Enfield Town Manager Ellen Zoppo-Sassu, who was in the area following the incident and said that the fight became physical once the students left campus.

“It happened somewhere over here on Pearl Street down in Thompsonville with a fight that became physical,” she told us. “People called it into the police department, and as they were coming, there were reports of crowds gathering, so we had additional police come and put out a call for mutual aid because we did not know what we were coming into.”

Eyewitnesses told us that they saw up to a dozen police cruisers in the area of Pearl and Cross Streets, but Rodrigues said that police response to that area is fairly common.

“It’s not very unusual to see people or that many cop cars in this area. It seems like a pretty good response, and again, pretty typical,” he said. “Police are always patrolling this area. If you don’t see an incident, you at least see a cop car.”

To help ease any fear or concerns from community members, Mayor Cressoti said that the town will be taking extra precautions in the coming days.

“Just to calm the situation and calm down, there will be added police presence just so that there isn’t any outbreak of any of the groups that might have been involved,” he told us.

No arrests have been made at this time and the investigation remains ongoing.

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