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ST. PETERSBURG — Officers broke up a raucous crowd of 100 adults and children outside John Hopkins Middle School before a brawl could break out after school Thursday. But it wasn't the children who were threatening to fight.
It was the grown-ups, police said.
The crowd had gathered to watch one mother challenge another to a fist fight off campus, according to St. Petersburg police. But the brawl never took place after three people were arrested.
Thursday's incident started with a long simmering dispute between two teenage girls, according to police spokesman Mike Puetz. The two girls, 12 and 15, had been at it for some time, police said, and may have been involved in at least one off-campus brawl.
The school resource officer tried to mediate between the two families to end the dispute, Puetz said, but sensed that the conflict might escalate Thursday after school. So he requested back-up. A sergeant and five extra officers were sent to patrol the area around the John Hopkins campus. Several parked their police vehicles at a gas station off Ninth Avenue S, across from the school.
The officers were easily visible, Puetz said, when one of the mothers, Kiesel Anthony, 34, appeared on the public sidewalk outside the school on the west side of 16th Street S with a large crowd about 4:30 p.m.
She later told police that her daughter had been "jumped" the day before.
Anthony was challenging the mother on the other side of 16th Street S, Tonja Osborne, 39, police said, who was with her family — and outnumbered. Then police said Anthony left the school side of the street and crossed east toward the other woman, police said.
"Anthony is then seen charging across 16th Street with her entourage toward Osborne," Puetz said. "The officers rushed to the confrontation."
Anthony kept slamming her fist into her other hand, Puetz said, yelled slurs and profanities at the other mother and kept challenging her to fight. She was also inciting the crowd, Puetz said, which by this point had grown to more than 100 people.
"The crowd was becoming more agitated, and she was warned to stop," Puetz said. "Then she was taken into custody."
But that wasn't the end of it. Then a 14-year-old girl, whose affiliation to the dispute was not known, started challenging others in the crowd to fight, police said. She also cursed at officers after they arrested her, Puetz said, and then tried to kick out the rear window of a police cruiser.
Then Gracie Macon, 20, waded into the crowd and tried to start a fight, police said. She resisted as officer tried to pull her back, Puetz said, so she was also arrested.
All three were arrested on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct.
Anthony, of 1051 Third Ave. N, was released on her own recognizance Thursday. Macon, of 1110 Melrose Ave. S, was freed from the Pinellas County jail on $250 bond at 3 a.m. Friday. The 14-year-old was not identified because of her age.
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