LINDENHURST, N.Y. (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – Three family members were indicted Friday in connection with last month's wild brawl on Sunrise Highway in Suffolk County—video of which showed a group of men, some armed with wooden sticks, fighting beside a flipped pickup truck.
Two men—Patrick J. O’Connor, 38, and his son James O’Connor, 19—were charged with second-degree assault and other crimes, as was an unnamed minor, the Suffolk D.A. said Friday.
The brawl stemmed from "an encounter" Patrick O’Connor and his 32-year-old cousin had at a Centereach restaurant on Dec. 17—a confrontation that escalated when O’Connor allegedly tried to strike his cousin with beer bottles, prosecutors said.
Three days later, O’Connor and his cousin encountered one another again in Hauppauge.
The family feud boiled over when the cousin and his father got in a GMC Sierra pickup truck and followed Patrick O’Connor's Ford F-150 pickup to Sunrise Highway in Lindenhurst, where James O’Connor also showed up in a Toyota Tundra pickup, prosecutors said.
James O’Connor allegedly rammed the cousin's GMC, causing his Toyota to flip onto its side in front of a Citibank branch. Patrick O’Connor's three younger siblings—ages 16, 12 and 4 years—were in the Toyota at the time but were not injured.
That's when the family "brazenly began a physical brawl in the middle of Sunrise Highway, putting their family and the public at serious risk of harm," Suffolk D.A. Ray Tierney said in a news release.
Patrick O’Connor and the minor repeatedly bashed the cousin in the head with wooden sticks, while James O’Connor pummeled him, according to prosecutors.
The cousin's brother showed up at the scene mid-fight and was also attacked by the family trio, prosecutors said.
Bystander video showed the wild skirmish unfold in broad daylight.
Bystanders ultimately intervened, causing the family to flee the scene, but they were nabbed later in the day by Suffolk County police, the D.A. said.
The victims were treated at Good Samaritan University Hospital. One of them required stables to his head, suffered two black eyes and had significant bruising and pain to his shoulders and back, according to prosecutors.