A raucous bar brawl in Northeast Philadelphia escalated to mayhem early Sunday morning when police say someone pulled out a gun and began firing, and a woman in the crowd assaulted three officers as they tried to break up the fight.
Two security guards at the Good Life Lounge, on Bustleton Avenue near Lott Street in Bustleton, called 9-1-1 shortly before 3 a.m. after a large fistfight involving several people broke out outside the bar, police said. The guards were on the phone with a dispatcher when gunfire rang out from the parking lot.
When police arrived, they were met with 50 to 75 people -- about 25 of whom were still fist-fighting -- in the parking lot of the lounge, according to authorities. As police tried to break up the brawl and disperse the crowd, one man became belligerent and began yelling at officers, according to police, telling them to "shoot me" and rushing at a lieutenant in a fighting stance.
When police used pepper spray to subdue that man, authorities said, a woman jumped into the fracas and punched a police officer in the head, a sergeant in the back and hit the lieutenant.
Both the woman and the man were arrested, along with a third man who refused to disperse when police ordered him to do so, according to Philadelphia Police Public Affairs.
The two men are expected to face charges of riot and disorderly conduct, and the woman is expected to face charges of assault on police, authorities said. The suspects have not yet been identified.
When the crowd finally broke up, police located 11 spent shell casings littered throughout the parking lot. No one was injured by gunfire, police said.
