OPP investigating brawl in stands of minor hockey game

An online video that captured a brawl in the stands of a minor hockey game in a small Ontario community has caught the attention of provincial police.

The video posted on YouTube Sunday afternoon shows adults taunting each other until the crowd erupts in a massive fist fight in Tweed, Ont.

At one point, a man who appears to be pulling another from the melee is dragged backwards until he falls to the ground while a woman — possibly the videographer — screams.

The caption says the footage was shot Saturday at the Bantam C hockey finals in Tweed, about halfway between Ottawa and Toronto. A Six Nations team was playing a Tweed team.

OPP Const. Alana Deubel said police are aware of the video and are reviewing it to determine whether charges are warranted.

Minor hockey association also investigating

She said on-duty OPP officers were at the game that day on the other side of the rink, but by the time they reached the location of the fight, everyone had dispersed.

No one was arrested.

"No details of injuries have been reported to us," Deubel said. "If medical attention was sought after the incident, we have not been made aware of that."

Bill Hutton is a risk management officer for the Ontario Minor Hockey Association, and a former OPP officer.

He said it appears that something on the ice, perhaps a penalty or penalties being called, may have riled people in the stands.

"It's totally unacceptable," he said. "We would consider this a major infraction.

"Those people are recognizable," Hutton added. "There's two or three of them that stand right out, from the time it started to the gentleman laying on the cement stands."

Once the culprits are identified, they could face sanctions including lifetime bans from attending games, Hutton said.

The clip had been viewed more than 13,000 times by midday Monday and was being shared on social media.

By Tuesday morning, it had been viewed more than 167,000 times.