Two men are facing charges including assaulting a police officer after a fight broke out at The Big E fair in western Massachusetts on Monday night.
West Springfield police said officers working inside The Big E responded to a report of a fight in progress around 10:13 p.m. in front of the Brooks Building near Gate 5. When they got there, a victim told police he had been assaulted by a man who was now walking away.
An officer approached the man, asking him to stop so they could identify him. But the man kept walking, saying he hadn't been involved in any fight. The officer attempted to stop the man again, and the man then punched the officer in the chest and pushed him away.
Two officers then grabbed the man and took him down to the ground as a group of people surrounded them, "acting hostile toward them," according to police. Another man in the crowd then jumped on the back of an officer who was attempting to handcuff the first man.
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Other officers quickly pulled the second man away and attempted to arrest him, but he resisted.
Both men were eventually arrested and escorted away from the scene.
The first man, identified as 20-year-old Davian Lopez, of Springfield, is charged with assault and battery on a police officer, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. The second man, identified as 21-year-old London Jefferson, also of Springfield, faces the same three charges.
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The remaining crowd was escorted out of Gate 5 without further incident, police said.
Monday's incident occurred a little over a week after two other people were arrested and multiple people injured in a brawl at The Big E.
The Big E opened Sept. 13 and continues through Sunday.
