A confrontation in a downtown parking lot escalated into an all-out battle involving nearly 40 people, which took a SWAT Team and Gang Unit to quell. The incident occurred in the Bank of America Plaza parking lot on Fifth Avenue around 2 a.m. on Saturday morning. Two local women were taken to Harborview for injuries sustained in the fight--one had been stabbed and the other beaten.

According to the P-I's report, a traffic dispute (inside a parking garage) began the altercation, after a silver Honda cut in front of the injured women. When the women let the Honda driver know they were none too happy with his driving by honking at him and pulling forward, so his car could not cut her off, the driver showed his equal displeasure. According to the report, the man driving the silver Honda "jumped out of his car, pulled the woman from her car, pushed her to the ground and repeatedly kicked her in the head."

The police report says that "several bystanders," including customers from a nearby restaurant "jumped into assist the women." (Apparently in police report lingo, "several" can mean over 30 people.) The police's description is just as incongruent as the rest of the local description of the incident as a "brawl". Our understanding of a brawl does not involve the SWAT team having to be called, but maybe we're old fashioned. Police arrested three men at the scene, and the assaulted women's injuries were not thought to be life threatening.

"Cock Fight" by fabulous Seattlest Flickr contributor Sea Kay